William Holman Hunt (1827-1910). Our English Coasts, 1852 (Strayed Sheep). Oil paint on canvas. 1853. Support: 432 x 584 mm; frame: 785 x 940 x 85 mm. Tate Gallery, London, ref. no. N05665. Presented by the Art Fund in 1946. Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported).
Like The Hireling Shepherd, Hunt's painting of a herd of endangered sheep on a cliff near Hastings combines religious and political satire with an elaborately realistic technique. When exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1853 it bore the title Our English Coasts, 1852, and [Frederick] Stephens suggests that it "might be taken as a satire on the reported defenceless state of the country against foreign invasion...." [see the rest of George Landow's discussion of this painting].
Last modified 24 July 2017