A painter of figures and landscapes, Joseph Jocous Moerenhout (1801-1875) was born at Eckeren, near Antwerp. A pupil of Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (1789-1863), Moerenhout trained at the Antwerp Academy where he specialised in depictions of horses and subsequently produced a plethora of scenes showing military halts, cavalry skirmishes, interiors of stables and hunting scenes. Moerenhout is known to have collaborated with the Romantic landscape artist Andreas Schelfhout (1787-1870), whom he met whilst in The Hague.
 
This composition was engraved by Thomas Sherratt, for the series The Royal Art Gallery (vol II, no.27), and was published in 1854 by P & D Colnaghi & Co. London, Agnew & Sons, Manchester. The Art Journal in 1857 judged that this ‘is a charming little work; the composition a reminiscence of the olden time; the grouping of the figures is striking and the drawing spirited and correct; the time of day is early morning; the masses of dark clouds appear rolling away before the uprisen sun. The colour of the painting is bright and rich, yet delicate and harmonious' (p. 278). The scene shows a seventeenth-century nobleman on a terrace, waiting to mount the white, spirited horse held by an attendant. A kneeling servant attaches his spurs while the young man pulls on his gloves in preparation for the ride. Two dogs, presumably joining him on the hunt, watch their master’s preparations with interest. There are references to a few artists of Dutch Golden Age, including most obviously Philips Wouwerman (1619-68).