Fox Hunting Debate
After reading several articles on the current fox hunting debate, including Jonathan Jones in The Guardian and Jane Kramer in the New Yorker, I have made up my mind. I am definitely on the side of the Fox! This is an issue of class warfare, and even though the Labour side is definitely using the issue as a “political football”, the fact remains that it is a cruel sport, and should not, in my opinion, be practiced. Although, this does not diminish the beauty of the fox hunting scene! Here is the grandfather of all fox hunting paintings, George Stubbs’s The Grosvenor Hunt and John Singer Sargent’sLord Ribblesdale.
The Guardian article linked above has some interesting analysis of each painting, and history has proven that some of the artists were (probably) on the side of the fox as well!
The role of the artist in society can sometimes be to give voice to he or she that has no voice!
I guarantee that if a fox would talk, he would tell you that he hates being torn apart by hounds!
There are so many examples of human kind’s propensity toward cruelty in the world, that I propose the new role of the aristocracy:
To represent the culmination of all that that is gracious, peaceful, and kind. (to humans as well as animals!)
In other words, manners.