Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1993.30.9
Gallery Label:
Major Dade was an officer of the East Suffolk militia and lived at Tannington, near Framlingham, north of Ipswich. He probably met Gainsborough through their mutual friend, the attorney Samuel Kilderbee, who in 1755 became Town Clerk of Ispwich. The major is shown reloading his gun after shooting an English partridge. The dog on the right has retrieved the game, while the other one catches the scent of the dead bird and approaches it with definite interest. In the distance, beyond the wooden gate, a groom takes care of the major's horse. Such specific narrative details are to be found only rarely in Gainsborough's early portrait practice, and never at all in his later portraits. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005
