The Deer Stealer

The Deer Stealer is an 1823 oil painting by the English artist James Ward. Combining landscape and genre painting, it depicts a poacher in a wooded scene accompanied by a white horse and a dead deer.^[1] It was commissioned for five hundred guineas but the owner Theophilus Levett was so delighted by the finished work that he instead paid him six hundred, the highest Ward ever received for a private commission.^[2]

The Deer Stealer
Artist	James Ward
Year	1823
Type	Oil on canvas, landscape painting
Dimensions	366.4 cm × 228.9 cm (144.3 in × 90.1 in)
Location	Tate Britain, London

It was exhibited at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition of 1823 at Somerset House. Today it is in the collection of Tate Britain in Pimlico having been acquired in 1950.^[3] An 1820 pencil study for the poacher, depicting him in great detail which was effectively lost in the final version due to its large scale, is in the Yale Center for British Art.^[4]