Music like The Fox Hunt

The Fox Hunt is an 1893 oil on canvas painting by Winslow Homer. It depicts a fox running in deep snow, menaced by hungry crows. His largest single work, it has been described as "Homer's greatest Darwinian painting, arguably his greatest painting of any kind."

The Fox Hunt was painted in Homer's studio at Prouts Neck, Maine during the winter of 1893. The painting depicts a fox foraging for food, who is in turn being hunted by crows driven to predation by hunger. At left several sprigs of red berries breach the snow, and in the distance may be seen the coastline and ocean beneath a deep blue sky.

According to Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., the artist used a fox's pelt draped over a barrel in the snow to accurately record color harmonies. Homer's biographer Philip C. Beam wrote that prior to the painting Homer was supplied a dead fox by one hunter, and several crows by another named Roswell Googins. Homer placed the crows in the snow outside his studio, and with the aid of string and sticks posed the fox in a running position. Homer experienced some difficulty, as the painting was begun late in winter, and warming temperatures caused the stiffened crows to thaw and grow limp. Homer asked Elbridge Oliver, the Scarborough, Maine stationmaster for his opinion of the painting, and he responded "Hell, Win, them ain't crows". After painting the birds out, Homer joined Oliver at the station, where they spent three days scattering corn on the ground to attract crows, Homer sketching the birds on telegraph blanks. Using the sketches as reference he repainted the crows, then summoned Oliver for his opinion and approval.