The Fowler's Return

Sporting pictures, such as The Fowler’s Return, were an important aspect of William Tylee Ranney’s work, but he also produced a wide variety of other subjects. Though his New Jersey studio overlooked the Manhattan skyline, he cultivated a much more rugged atmosphere there, in line with his sporting scenes. A visitor described the studio, saying: "guns, pistols, and cutlasses hung on the walls; and these with curious saddles and primitive riding gear, might lead a visitor to imagine he had entered a pioneer’s cabin or border chieftain’s hut; such an idea would, however, have been at once dispelled by a glance at the many sketches and studies which proclaimed that an artist, not a bushranger, had here found a home."