Most of these pictures are well-known paintings from the 18th and 19th centuries, although many works portraying hunting scenes remain locked away in stately homes and private collections.

While several of the artists were keen on the sport, many were simply painting what they saw - the thought that they might be endorsing or glamourising fox-hunting wouldn't have crossed their minds.

Liverpool-born George Stubbs (1724-1806) is particularly renowned for his paintings of horses. During his lifetime, Stubbs was looked down on by the art establishment because he was classified as a sporting painter. Among his hunting-inspired works are Huntsmen Setting Out From Southill, Bedfordshire and A Foxhound, Ringwood.

Henry Alken (1785-1851) was another leading British sporting artist who painted fox-hunts, among other things. Alken was himself a keen huntsman - in 1810 he and his wife moved to Melton Mowbray and he sometimes worked under the name Ben Tally Ho. His fox-hunting scenes included The Hunt and The Death. Tate Britain holds five of his works in its main collection, including The Belvoir Hunt: Jumping Into And Out Of A Lane. This image will be familiar to many English pub-goers as a print seen hanging on the wall.

While fox-hunting art never sought to hide the reality of the kill, prominent fox-hunting scenes tend to be more serene, portraying riders with the hounds, setting off for a day's sport from picturesque villages, with smiling sightseers waving them off; or hunts in full flight across the fields; or triumphant riders returning home - for example The Start Of The Hunt by George Derville Rowlandson and Outside The Three Crowns by Heywood Hardy.

Paintings such as the series of four by John Nost Sartorius (1759-1828) of the Earl of Darlington fox-hunting with the Raby Pack truly establish the iconography of fox-hunting that we know today. The Earl was passionately devoted to hunting: in the season 1804-5, when this series was painted, he records hunting for 91 days in all, killing 49 foxes. Sartorius's meticulous attention to detail appealed to sport-loving patrons like the Earl of Darlington. The works are now part of the Tate collection.

Surrey-born John Frederick Herring Sr (1795-1865) also painted a series of four oils, showing the four stages of hound work: The Suffolk Hunt - Going To Cover Near Harringswell; Going Away; Full Cry; and The Death.

Other leading wildlife artists at this time included George Goodwin Kilburne (1839-1924) and Edward Benjamin Herberte (1857-1893), who lived in Warwickshire. Many of his hunting scenes feature the Warwickshire Hunt and he gained a reputation not only for being a fine painter of horses, but also for his landscapes. He also painted a few pictures of racing and horse fairs.

Into the 20th century

Another classic hunting painting - which hangs in the National Gallery - is John Singer Sargent's (1856-1925) portrait of Lord Ribblesdale, dating from 1902, dressed in a black hunting outfit and wielding a riding crop. Lord Ribblesdale was Master of the Buckhounds from 1892 to 1895 and Liberal Whip of the House of Lords.

Lionel Edwards (1878-1966) fox-hunted with nearly every pack in England and was often commissioned to paint the hunts on canvas. Among his large and scenic oils, depicting the green English countryside with a fox-hunt running across it, is The Quorn Running Towards Quenby Hall, with the hounds in full cry. Other titles include Returning Home and The Sound Atherstone At Monks Kirby.

Modern-day iconography

The real ale company Old Speckled Hen has adopted a distinctive fox character in its marketing - yet its origins have nothing to do with a hen - or fox!. It was first brewed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the MG car factory. Its name actually comes from the expression “owld speckled 'un”, a term used to describe the old MG used as a factory run-around. Over time, this unusual, canvas-covered saloon became covered with flecks of paint and was dubbed the “owld speckled ‘un” by locals.