Ivan Pavlovitch Pokhitonov was born in Yelisavetgrad (now Kropyvytskyi) in the Kherson Governorate of the Russian Empire. Educated in Zoology, by 1869 he had dedicated himself wholly to painting and later moved to France and then Belgium, although he remained a quasi-nomad, travelling with a carriage of his own design that as his studio.

He was especially fond of hunting and his hunting and shooting scenes, of which this is a typically fine example, may be considered the paintings that best showcase the almost obsessive love of detail that characterises his work. The vast skies with tiny detailed figures in the foreground recall the countryside in which he spent his first twenty-five years, while the minute perfection seen here in t...