Wooded landscape with Jacques reclining on the river bank in the right foreground and a stag drinking across the water, a figure in pursuit of deer behind and a town in the distance over fields beyond the trees. Artist Biography:George Howland Beaumont, was born at Great Dunmow, and was the only surviving child of landowner Sir George Beaumont, 6th Baronet, and his wife Rachel, daughter of Michael Howland of Stone Hall, Matching Green, Harlow, Essex. In 1762, he inherited the baronetcy and was brought up in Suffolk by Revd Charles Davy (1722-1797), then rector of Benacre, through whom in 1771, he met artists Thomas Hearne (1744-1817) and two year later Joseph Faringdon (1747-1821), who had a considerable influence upon him and they even joined him on his honeymoon in the Lake District in 1778 when he married Margaret, daughter of John Willes M.P., of Astrop, Oxfordshire. George also studied under landscape painter Alexander Cozens (1717-1786) at Eton College and under John Baptiste Malchair (1731-1812) at New College, Oxford. After travelling the continent with his wife from 1782 he left his house in Dunmow and began re-building Coleorton Hall, Leicestershire and where he established his reputation as an art patron, and his house in Grosvenor Square, London was also a focal point for people from the worlds of art and politics. He played a crucial part in the creation of London’s National Gallery by making the first bequest of his valuable collection of paintings to that institution. Beaumont became a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1794 to 1825, eventually earning a reputation as the leading amateur painter of his day. After a brief illness, Sir George Beaumont died in Coleorton Hall on 7 February 1827.