Strideaway ~ John Martin Tracy

[Chris Mathan]

John Martin Tracy was likely the first prominent artist who depicted pointing dogs and scenes of upland bird hunting and field trials in American...

http://www.strideaway.com/strideaway/index.php

[gunner]

Chris, So nice to see a face accompanying a name within your avatar. Your Strideaway bird dog site is outstanding.

Regarding John Martin Tracy, my favorite sporting dog artist: Most of his early work was devoted to portraits, pastoral landscapes, and scenes of civil war battlefields. Later his work was devoted heavily to wards the sporting life; bird dogs, field trials and horse shows. He was commissioned to paint many of the winning dogs of that period.The image of two setters pointing appearing at the Strideaway site depicts Tracy's wonderful painting of the Setter dog icon Gladstone. This painting was auctioned off recently. I'd be curious to know what it sold for and where it may now hang?

Tracy also designed the mast head of the American Field.

Dog enthusiasts find his work appearing regularly in early publications, including The American Kennel and Sporting Field, Arnold Burgess 1882, Bench Show and Field Trial Records and Standards of Dog in America 1874-1891, J. M. Taylor. As you noted a chapter of Wm. Bruce Leffingwell's Shooting on Upland, Marsh and Stream, (1890) was written and illustrated by Tracy. It can be viewed online along with the two previous titles.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ZBdDAA ... &q&f=false

Tracy was a well known judge of both bench shows and early field trials and an officer of the early English Setter and Pointer clubs.

Bob Wehle included a sketch about Tracy and his work in the book "Snakefoot." Probably the best fairly recent article on Tracy including images of his work appears in the Wildlife Art News magazine by Tom Davis in it's fall issue of 1994. A much earlier article on Tracy appeared in the American Kennel Club Gazette in the May 1936 issue written by Freeman Lloyd from conversations with one of Tracy's daughters.

The New York Times wrote ..."J. M. Tracy was a painter to delight the heart of all sporting men...He painted the hunter before the flock of birds, the dog with tail extended and paw uplifted, as he stood quivering over the scent; and he did it all con amore, faithfully, and with full understanding and knowledge of his subject."


ps Chris, the painting accompanying Strideaway's article on Tracy depicting "an Early Field Trial" is actually of one of the early English field trials and is attributed to the British artist George Earl.

[gunner]

Here's one of Tracy's works that appeared in Harper's Weekly magazine depicting an early field trial at High Point N.C.