2010/15

VWH Cricklade. Into the Vale from Blunsdon,

Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin (Artist)

This signed print from 1912, ‘VWH Cricklade. Into the Vale from Blunsdon’, is one of a set of signed prints in the series ‘Twelve Hunting Countries’ by Cecil Aldin (1870–1935). It is in its original wooden frame. The print shows the Vale of White Horse (VWH) Hunt under way, galloping over hedges, past pollarded trees and across open fields. The Hunt kept its kennels at the village of Cricklade in Wiltshire. Aldin had a passion for hunting and became Master of the Southern Berkshire Hunt in 1914.

Print: paper

MERL 'Handwritten accession' form (Museum of English Rural Life) – 'Description: Colour print in original wooden frame. ‘VWH Cricklade. Into the Vale from Blunsdon’ // Signed in pencil by the artist Cecil Aldin (1870–1935). 1912. // Dimensions: // Associated information: Purchased as part of the Collecting 20thc Rural Culture project. // The VWH Hunt (Vale of White Horse) was formed in 1832, with Kennels at Cricklade. // References: Ray Heron ‘Cecil Aldin. The story of a sporting artist’. 1981’, Collecting 20thc Rural Culture blog [Wednesday, 19 May 2010] – ‘Hunting print, 1912 // This is one in a set of signed prints, Twelve Hunting Countries, produced in 1912 by the acclaimed animal artist, Cecil Aldin (1870-1935). It has the title 'VWH Cricklade. Into the Vale from Blunsdon', referring to the Vale of the White Horse Hunt with its kennels in Cricklade, Wiltshire and the village of Blunsdon which has since been all but swallowed up by the expansion of modern Swindon. The Hunt is shown in full cry hurtling across the road, over the neatly laid boundary hedge, past the bare pollarded trees, and on into the open winter landscape of subdued colours and small enclosed fields. Hunting was in its heyday and heroic scenes of the chase, popular amongst supporters and followers, were supplied to the market by a coterie of specialist artists including Charles "Snaffles" Johnson Payne (1884-1967) and Lionel Edwards (1878-1966) as well as Aldin himself. // Cecil Aldin, from a wealthy property developing family, trained at what is now the Royal College of Art and then at Midhurst in Sussex, under the animal artist Frank Calderon (1865-1943). From the 1890s, he enjoyed a successful and varied commercial career, designing posters, illustrating books and magazines, and creating stage sets. In his youth he developed an ongoing and consuming passion for hunting that saw him become Master of the South Berks Hunt in 1914 and for twenty years the Hunt's headquarters at Purley near Pangbourne became his base. He is pictured in his studio at the kennels below. // Aldin's book work included a series of illustrations for a 1912 edition of Anna Sewell's Black Beauty. // Aldin's art was empathetic, a visual expression of the relationship between man and beast, and he fixed in the public mind an enduring image of light and life in a horse-drawn countryside.’

1912 - 1912