Nikolai Sverchkov. Hunting the Wolf. 1873

Hunting the Wolf (Nikolai Sverchkov, 1873)

Sverchkov is the “horsey/hunting” artist par excellence in the Russian milieu. His oeuvre consists of hunting scenes, mounted portraits, troikas dashing through the snow, etc. In fact, I do not think there is any major painting of his that does not contain a horse in it somewhere.

The hunt was an interesting social institution in pre-revolutionary society. For the duration of the hunt, all usual social distinctions were dropped, and precedence was determined by one’s hunting abilities, not one’s social status. In short, a nobleman would defer to a peasant with superior tracking skills, for instance. The hunters would go on foot leading their horses whilst their borzois were on the scent of the prey. When the dogs noticed the prey, the hunters would mount and commence the chase. Let us say that the prey sighted was a wolf, as in the picture above. The dogs would run down the wolf, then, one of the riders would dismount, seat himself on the wolf’s back, and secure his mouth with a chain. Another of the hunters would dismount and dispatch the wolf with his dagger. Not a method for the faint of heart, I would say! Using firearms was “not done”, and considered quite unsporting for “small game”. Of course, guns were “allowed” in the bear hunt and in the hunting of birds. I do not think that there would be many who would face a bear with a dagger…

Of course, it is “hunting season” now, so, one can see that it is a venerable institution, and that our men have been chasing game, drinking “hard likker” in tin cups, playing cards, and enjoying themselves thoroughly without their womenfolk for quite some time. May it continue, for it is healthy and without guile. Fie on all “tree huggers” who oppose hunting. In any case, it gets the fellows out of our hair for the weekend…