My Favourite Painting: Michael Clayton
Former editor of Horse & Hound Michael Clayton tells us about his favourite painting


The Mockers, 1925, by Lionel Edwards (1878–1966), Private Collection
Michael Clayton says: 'This evocative work shows rooks mobbing a fox in a superb Leicestershire hunting landscape. It is somewhat untypical of Edwards because the hounds and the field are merely tiny dots far away, but it evokes the terrain and its sky in winter in a wonderfully effective manner. Edwards was a very good landscape painter, superior to many other sporting artists, and this work gives full rein to his talent. Having ridden over this landscape in similar conditions for more than 50 years, I find it especially appealing. I have seen foxes “mocked” in this way by birds; it symbolises just how tough nature can be.'
Michael Clayton is the former editor of Horse & Hound and an author of more than a dozen books on hunting, including Foxhunting in Paradise (1993), a history of the sport in Leicestershire
John McEwen comments:
'Lionel Dalhousie Robertson Edward s was born in Clifton, the son of a doctor. He was only seven when his father died, but it was from him that he inherited a love of hunting. His talent for art, evident from an early age, came from his mother’s side of the family, his grandmother a pupil of George Romney.
The Times obituarist wrote: ‘He was in the older tradition of representing sport from the inside… his remarkable “eye for country” was that of a man who sees the landscape from the saddle.’ Edwards’s boyhood was spent on a small country estate at Benarth in Conway, North Wales.
Private education, a London pupillage with A. S. Cope RA, the portrait painter, then stints at the Heatherley School of Fine Art and Frank Calderon’s School of Animal Painting rapidly bore fruit: at 19, he became the youngest member of the London Sketch Club. He married Ethel Wells, another keen foxhunter, and, after the First World War, they settled at Buckholt, Hampshire.
Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
This view of Leicestershire, where the Quorn, Cottesmore, Belvoir, Pytchley, Fernie and Atherstone share the spoils, celebrates Nimrod’s opinion, approvingly quoted by Edwards, that ‘both nature and art have contributed to make Leicestershire the county for fox-hunting’. Edwards noted that agriculture ‘has supplied well-drained land and negotiable fences, while art has placed foxcovers at nice distances apart’. This picture hints at spring, with its suggestion of rooks nesting.
It is based on Edwards’s meticulous yet spirited on-the-spot pencil sketches. His preferred medium for painting was watercolour, in this case water-soluble gouache. He worked to the end, dying of a stroke at home.'
Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.
-
British racing driver and F1 commentator Jamie Chadwick’s consuming passions
Jamie Chadwick reveals who inspires her, what gets her up in the morning and why she’d never sell one of her race helmets.
By Rosie Paterson Last updated
-
‘If there were Olympic medals for apologising, we English would win gold, silver and bronze’: Why does sorry seem to be the easiest word?
What is that makes the British so overly fond of apologising?
By Deborah Nicholls-Lee Last updated
-
'As a child I wanted to snuggle up with the dogs and be part of it': Alexia Robinson chooses her favourite painting
Alexia Robinson, founder of Love British Food, chooses an Edwin Landseer classic.
By Charlotte Mullins Published
-
The Pre-Raphaelite painter who swapped 'willowy, nubile women' for stained glass — and created some of the best examples in Britain
The painter Edward Burne-Jones turned from paint to glass for much of his career. James Hughes, director of the Victorian Society, chooses a glass masterpiece by Burne-Jones as his favourite 'painting'.
By Charlotte Mullins Published
-
'I can’t look away. I’m captivated': The painter who takes years over each portrait, with the only guarantee being that it won't look like the subject
For Country Life's My Favourite Painting slot, the writer Emily Howes chooses a work by a daring and challenging artist: Frank Auerbach.
By Toby Keel Published
-
My Favourite Painting: Rob Houchen
The actor Rob Houchen chooses a bold and challenging Egon Schiele work.
By Charlotte Mullins Published
-
My Favourite Painting: Jeremy Clarkson
'That's why this is my favourite painting. Because it invites you to imagine'
By Charlotte Mullins Published
-
The chair of the National Gallery names his favourite from among the 2,300 masterpieces — and it will come as a bit of a shock
As the National Gallery turns 200, the chair of its board of trustees, John Booth, chooses his favourite painting.
By Toby Keel Published
-
'A wonderful reminder of what the countryside could and should be': The 200-year-old watercolour of a world fast disappearing
Christopher Price of the Rare Breed Survival Trust on the bucolic beauty of The Magic Apple Tree by Samuel Palmer, which he nominates as his favourite painting.
By Charlotte Mullins Published
-
My favourite painting: Andrew Graham-Dixon
'Lesson Number One: it’s the pictures that baffle and tantalise you that stay in the mind forever .'
By Country Life Published