Victorian Sporting Oil Painting "Game Dogs" Signed Robert Cleminson (1864-1903)

Victorian English Oil Painting – Sporting “Game Dogs” – Signed Robert Cleminson

🎯 Subject & Medium

A characterful and atmospheric Victorian sporting oil painting titled “Game Dogs”, by the listed British artist Robert Cleminson (1864–1903). Painted in oil on canvas, it shows two game dogs at rest with their quarry in a Highland setting and dates to the late 19th century (circa 1880–1900). This is exactly the sort of painting prized by collectors of sporting art, dog pictures and country house interiors.

🎨 Composition & Technique

The scene unfolds in a Scottish Highland landscape, with distant mountains and a softly clouded sky creating depth and mood. Cleminson draws the viewer’s gaze to the foreground, where the two dogs occupy a gentle rise of lush green grass.

The white and brown dog, placed almost front-on, lies at ease, its pose suggesting the calm fatigue that follows a successful day’s shooting. Beside it, the black dog stands or sits alertly in side profile, head turned to the right as though listening for its master’s return. This interplay of relaxation and watchfulness adds narrative tension and personality to the painting.

To the right, two large stone boulders act as a solid structural counterweight. Leaning against them is a substantial wicker basket brimming with game birds, their bodies spilling over the rim to display the spoils of the day. Behind, the ground rises toward hills and mountains painted in muted greens, browns and blue-grey tones, suggesting heather, rock and distance under Highland light.

The brushwork is assured and varied. The dogs’ coats are rendered with short, textured strokes that catch light and define muscle and fur. The feathers of the game are described with softer, more delicate touches, while the grass and earth are built up in layers of greens and ochres, giving a convincing sense of damp, uneven terrain. The colour harmony is warm but natural, with rich browns, blacks and whites in the animals and basket set against cooler greens and distant blues.

The lighting is gentle and diffused, with restrained highlights on the dogs and basket implying late afternoon or early evening. The overall impression is one of control, detail and confidence, marking this as a considered, higher-quality work within Cleminson’s output.

👨🎨 About the Artist

Robert Cleminson (1864–1903) was a British painter best known for his sporting subjects, landscapes and animal paintings, particularly dogs and Highland game. His works catered directly to Victorian tastes for country pursuits, field sports and rural life, and remain popular with collectors in Britain and abroad.

He exhibited ten works at the British Institution, an important exhibiting body founded as a rival to the Royal Academy and housed at Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery in Pall Mall, London. He also exhibited further paintings at the Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street, another key London venue for 19th-century art.

Cleminson’s market has remained steady, with an auction record of around $16,470 USD for The Tiger Hunt, achieved at Bonhams Knightsbridge in 2018. This underlines the ongoing interest in his better works and in high-quality Victorian animal and sporting pictures more generally.

✍️ Signed

The painting is signed “Robert Cleminson” at the lower left. The signature is in keeping with Cleminson’s known hand and typical positioning, supporting the attribution.

📜 Historical Significance

This work is an excellent illustration of Victorian sporting culture, when paintings of hunts, dogs and game were central to the decoration of country houses and sporting lodges. Such images spoke of land, leisure and lifestyle and would often hang in gun rooms, halls, smoking rooms and gentlemen’s clubs.

It sits firmly within the Victorian tradition of animal portraiture, where dogs are portrayed not only as working animals but as valued companions and emblems of loyalty, discipline and refinement. The Highland setting feeds into the 19th-century romantic vision of Scotland as a landscape of sport and natural grandeur, a fashionable subject for patrons and artists alike.

Today, a painting like this still brings that world into the home, combining decorative strength with social and historical interest.

🖼 Framed

The painting is presented in its original gilt wood frame, which is both substantial and decorative. The frame is of good late Victorian quality, weighing approximately 8 kg unwrapped, and is enriched with moulded floral and foliate gesso ornament that perfectly complements the subject.

A front protective glass cover sits over the canvas, helping to shield the paint surface from dust and casual contact. The rear is enclosed with a board backing, and a hanging thread is already attached, so the piece is ready to hang and enjoyimmediately. The survival of the original frame greatly enhances the authenticity, presence and period charm of the work.

📏 Size

Including the frame, the overall dimensions are approximately 56.5 cm (22.24 in) in height, 66 cm (25.98 in) in width, and 9 cm (3.54 in) in depth. This makes it a very pleasing medium-sized statement painting: bold enough to command a wall, yet compact enough to sit comfortably above a fireplace, on a feature wall, or within a study, library or hallway.

🧾 Provenance

The painting has a well-documented and attractive provenance.

It began in a private collection in the United Kingdom, acquired in the late 19th or early 20th century. It then remained by descent or through subsequent UK ownership until it was consigned to auction.

It appeared at Bamfords Auctioneers & Valuers, Derby, in an Interiors & Collectors sale on 2 December 2020, catalogued as lot 1019, and again in a further sale on 13 January 2021 as lot 196. Auction labels from Bamfords remain affixed to the reverse of the frame.

From Bamfords, the painting was purchased by Cheshire Antiques Consultant, UK, acting as dealer. Between 2021 and 2024, it was offered by Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD across several established online platforms, including LoveAntiques, Antiques-Atlas, Ruby Lane, Vinterior, Chairish, Pamono and others.

It was subsequently consigned to NY Elizabeth, Beverly Hills, California, and offered via LiveAuctioneers online sales during 2023–2024, described as “Game Dogs” Oil Painting, signed Robert Cleminson. These appearances are traceable through Barnebys and MutualArt records.

Afterwards, the painting was returned to or retained by Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD and is currently offered on eBay UK under the title Victorian Oil Painting Sporting “Game Dogs” Signed Robert Cleminson (1864–1903).

This clear chain of ownership, supported by labels verso and online records, is reassuring to collectors and adds interest to the work’s history.

❤️ Why You’ll Love It

✅ This painting distils everything that makes Victorian sporting art so irresistible: two characterful game dogs, their quarry laid out in a wicker basket, and a brooding Highland landscape that instantly conjures the atmosphere of the shooting field and country estate life.

✅ It is the work of a recognised, listed artist, Robert Cleminson, with a documented exhibition history and a solid auction track record, giving confidence both from an art-historical and collecting standpoint.

✅ The original gilt frame, with its deep profile, moulded floral decoration and warm gold leaf, greatly amplifies the painting’s impact and allows it to integrate seamlessly into traditional, country house, lodge, library or gentleman’s study schemes.

✅ On the wall it naturally becomes a focal point and talking piece; guests are drawn to the dogs, the game and the Highland setting, and the painting offers ample opportunity to share its provenance, story and context.

✅ For anyone who loves genuine period works, this picture delivers that rare blend of quality, subject, patina and traceable history that makes 19th-century British art such a pleasure to live with and to collect over time.

🔍 Condition

The painting is offered in fine, used, worn condition, consistent with its age. Importantly, the frame is original to the work, and the front protective glass has helped to guard the paint surface from further damage.

The frame shows the sort of wear one expects from an original late Victorian surround. There are areas of gilt loss and rubbing, particularly on the raised mouldings, and cracking and localised losses to the gesso decoration around the edges, together with visible scuffs, wear and small chips. These are entirely commensurate with age and contribute to the frame’s authentic antique appearance.

The canvas exhibits scattered foxing and minor staining, visible on closer inspection, along with areas of craquelure – the fine network of age-related cracking typical of 19th-century oils. To the naked eye the paint surface appears stable, with no obviously intrusive, heavy overpainting or recent over-restoration apparent at normal viewing distance.

Despite these age-related characteristics, the picture hangs very well, with a rich, honest patina that many collectors positively value in a period piece.