Dogs hunting
Two spaniels have just picked up partridges for the hunter they are accompanying and who is not visible in the picture. These "pointing" dogs are mainly used to hunt birds and small game, which they are responsible for spotting and reporting, and then bringing back to their master, once shot.
The scene is bucolic and punctuated with anecdotal details: a hare that nothing seems to frighten hidden under the leaves, a farm sketched in the background, with a tower or pigeon house, a kind of factory or ornamental construction fashionable in 18th century landscape gardens.
If Christophe Huet (died in Paris in 1759) is a recognized animal painter of the 18th century, willingly inspired by the animal paintings of François Desportes, as it is the case here, he remained especially famous for his magnificent exotic paintings, illustrating the taste of the time for chinoiseries. He is indeed the author of the decorations of Singeries of the castle of Champs sur Marne, of the castle of Chantilly as well as of the Cabinet of the Monkeys of the hotel of Rohan (National Archives).
