The Barraud brothers, William and Henry, collaborated on a number of paintings, several of which were exhibited at the Royal Academy. William painted the horses and dogs, while Henry painted the figures and landscapes.
William Barraud began his professional life as a clerk in the where his father worked. That occupied him only a short time, and he left to study animal painting with Abraham Cooper. An animal painting exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1929 brought William commissions. In 1830, he produced a portrait group of John Warde, “The Father of Foxhunters”, on his favorite hunter with his best hounds. Requests for similar paintings, like The Old Surrey and Burstow Foxhounds, were accepted jointly by William and Henry.
Henry had followed his older brother to a brief clerkship at the Customs House, after which he too sought formal art training in portraiture. Outliving his brother by more than 20 years, he continued to paint sporting subjects, but also ventured into other areas such as his painting of three choristers.
Fox-hunting developed into a national sport during the first half of the 19th century in England. Public subscription packs, in well-defined hunt countries, replaced privately maintained packs of foxhounds and hunts on manorial estates. The Old Surrey, conveniently located near London, afforded sport for any who could pay to subscribe. The Surrey foxhounds later combined with the pack from Burstow. The Old Surrey and Burstow Foxhounds, signed and dated 1838, shows three members of the Hills family, ready to hunt, surrounded by 21 hounds and one terrier, all accurately portrayed.
Sporting paintings by both of the Barraud brothers, together and individually, were engraved, and many appeared as illustrations in the sporting magazines.