[Stag in Cart]

Horatio Ross

ca. 1858 · Albumen silver print from glass negative · Photographs

Far better known in his own day as an athlete and a sportsman than as a photographer, Ross was, even in his sixties, judged the finest shot in Scotland. He described deerstalking as "the most fascinating of all British field-sports." Keen on the challenge of pitting his knowledge, stamina, and experience against his quarry's superior senses of smell, sight, and hearing, Ross nevertheless possessed a gentlemanly concern for avoiding undue suffering in his kills and for maintaining the forest. Here, Ross photographed this trophy with a remarkable directness, making an image unsettlingly unromanticized in its four-square presentation and extreme realism. The stag, antlers pointed toward the viewer, seems not only to spill out of the tilted cart but out of the picture itself.

Artist

Horatio Ross

Date

ca. 1858

Medium

Albumen silver print from glass negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gilman Collection, Museum Purchase, 2005