The Meet

Pieter Jan van Reijsschoot was the first painter in an artist family that was to dominate artistic activities in Ghent for more than five decades. He spent the majority of his life in England, which resulted in his nickname ‘the Englishman’. He preferred to paint historic scenes and portraits of lower provincial English nobility. The Meet (the meeting prior to…

Pieter Jan van Reijsschoot was the first painter in an artist family that was to dominate artistic activities in Ghent for more than five decades. He spent the majority of his life in England, which resulted in his nickname ‘the Englishman’. He preferred to paint historic scenes and portraits of lower provincial English nobility. The Meet (the meeting prior to the hunt) and The Kill (the killing of the stag) are among his best works. They are so-called sporting conversation pieces. This genre, which was originally created by Antwerp painter Peter Tillemans, was extremely popular in England during the eighteenth century. Van Reijsschoot painted The Meet and The Kill for Sir John Frederick of Southwick Park in Hampshire. They show the lord and his party during a hunt at Hascombe Estate in Surrey.