Henry Rankin Poore was an American artist of late 19th and early 20th century. Captivated by the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1874, he started art classes at the National Academy of Design in New York. He soon developed a reputation for his paintings of dogs, hunting scenes and western mining. He quickly made enough money to study at the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1883. Poore then went to study in Paris at the prestigious atelier with William Bouguereau at the Acádemie Julian. He later traveled to England to round out his artistic studies. It was in England that Poore began his lifelong interest in fox hunting, a sport that inspired most of his painting and writing. From 1890, he also taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Poore mainly produced fox hunting, dog portraits, animals and rural landscape subjects. He has been described as a “spirited and versatile artist, able to paint on diverse themes and noted for his sporting dog pictures as well as genre and landscape paintings.”