Joseph Parrocel, 'The Boar Hunt', about 1700

The terrified boar is surrounded on all sides by riders on horseback and men on foot with spears. This moment has been chosen for dramatic effect: the fleeing boar is trapped and about to be killed. The rearing horses and snarling dogs add to the intensity of the action. Forced into a narrow space, animals and people collide into one another; a dog has been knocked to the ground. The loose, visible brushstrokes create a feeling of hurried movement.

Hunting was a common pursuit of the wealthy in seventeenth-century France. The figures on horseback enjoy the chase rather than directly participate in the act of killing, which is being carried out by the men on the ground. The male figure on the grey horse raises his sword in triumph; his costume is appropriately theatrical in style. Behind him a man blows a bugle, a type of horn. Two woman in elegant seventeenth-century dress and riding side-saddle watch from their horses. One of them holds a spear, imitating those held by men attacking the wounded animal.

Parrocel was surely influenced by earlier hunting scenes, such as Wolf and Fox Hunt (Metropolitan Museum, New York), painted in about 1642 by Peter Paul Rubens. His influence can be seen in the bright colouring and lively brushwork, and the twisted positions of the rearing horses. The men surrounding the boar with spears in Parrocel’s painting are similar to those in Antonio Tempesta’s (1555–1630) A Boar Hunt (Royal Collection, London) of about 1608/12. Parrocel’s training in Rome with Jacques Courtois, the leading battle painter of the seventeenth century, was also good preparation for the complex scenes featuring figures and animals that he produced in the 1660s and 1670s.

The painting’s companion, The Return from the Hunt is also owned by the National Gallery. This is more playful and light-hearted, and shows the influence of Dutch scenes of everyday life. The pair were painted in around 1700 and were intended to be hung together.