A Pointer and Partridges

A Pointer and Partridges, dated 1730 and held by the National Trust at a British country house, documents the penetration of Oudry's reputation and market into Britain. The National Trust's country house collections contain many French Rococo works acquired by aristocratic families in the eighteenth century when French culture was the standard of taste for English landed gentry. A pointer with partridges was a subject with immediate appeal to the English aristocracy, for whom field sports were as central to social identity as they were to the French nobility. The 1730 date represents the mid-point of Oudry's mature production, after his royal appointment but before the great Chasses Royales tapestry commission that would preoccupy him through the 1730s and 1740s.

Canvas with the pointer-partridge format Oudry had by 1730 perfected through many repetitions. The dog's pointing posture — frozen, weight forward, one foreleg raised, tail extended — is rendered with the complete anatomical authority of deep familiarity. The partridges in the undergrowth are handled with enough visibility to establish the hunt's purpose while maintaining their natural camouflaged integration into the setting.