The Auld Manâs Meirâs Dead
Howe was apprenticed to a coach painter in Edinburgh. He later became quite well known in Scotland as an animal painter, and won commissions from the Board of Agriculture. In 1815 he visited Waterloo a few days after the battle, of which he produced a successful invented panorama. This was shown at the British Institution in 1816. It is possible that the Ferens' small and sketchy painting is a study for a larger work. A 1936 article on Howe in The Border Magazine describes the drawing ([sketch]: therefore probably our painting) for a picture of this title as, "though clumsyâ¦fair and in a certain way expressive, but the characterisation is of that exaggerated kind, awakening laughter rather than sympathyâ¦" This does indeed appear to be an apt description of the Ferens' anecdotal composition by Howe.
