Horse with Rider Shying Away From Woman with Dog

Hablot Knight Browne · c. 1860

Medium

Watercolor, with pen and black ink, heightened with touches of white gouache, over graphite, selectively varnished, on ivory wove paper

Original size

25.3 × 35.4 cm (10 × 13 15/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Romanticism

A charged moment of street-level comedy and tension, this small watercolor captures a horse rearing away from a woman and her dog with the kind of instinctive, gestural energy that defined Hablot Knight Browne at his best. Better known by his pen name "Phiz," Browne built his reputation as the principal illustrator for Charles Dickens, producing the iconic plates for works including *Dombey and Son*, *David Copperfield*, and *Bleak House*. Here he works in watercolor and ink rather than etching, and the shift suits him — the loose, confident linework and selective varnishing give the scene a spontaneous, almost cinematic quality, with the white gouache highlights lending the horse's coat a convincing sense of reflected light. Browne was one of the most technically versatile illustrators of the Victorian era, equally at home with etching, watercolor, and oil, and this piece shows why his work remained in demand across four decades of prolific output. Now held in the Art Institute of Chicago, the original measures modestly but carries considerable presence. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates Browne's rapid, assured touch onto canvas, preserving the drama of the composition and the warmth of his palette in a format built to last.