George Stubbs
(1724-1806)

George Stubbs - Self Portrait (1781)

George Stubbs is best known for his paintings of horses. He was born in 1724 in Liverpool, England, one of 5 children and son of a currier. He was exposed at a tender age to the slaughter of animals, and the young Stubb's would study, dissect and draw the muscles, bones and organs of these animals in his father's tannery.

He had very little formal art instruction, although at the age of 16, he briefly studied under a painter by the name of Hamlet Winstanley, who was a copyist who worked with the Lord Derby's painting collection at Knowsley Hall near Liverpool.

By the age of 20, Stubbs had moved on to dissecting and studying human anatomy at the York Medical Center, learning it well enough to teach it to the medical students there. In 1751 he learned etching techniques from a local engraver and illustrated "An Essay Towards a Complete New System of Midwifery" by Dr. John Burton.

He travelled to Italy and Rome at the age of 30, but held little interest in Italian art. He felt more artistic passion in nature, which he felt was the only source of inspiration and perfection.

He and his common law wife, Mary Spencer, had a son, George Townley Stubbs in 1756. Three years later, Stubbs moved his familiy to London. Here he became a very successful painter of animals, most especially horses. Equine sports, notably hunting, racing and breeding, were popular with the aristocratic set and with Stubbs knowledge of anatomy and great skill at painting, he was commissioned to paint many famous horses of the time. Some of his commissions included Mares and Foals, Whistlejacket and Hambletonian.

Click Here to order this print	Mares and Foals Without a doubt, his best effort was a never-completed frieze entitled "Mares and Foals" painted in 1762. In it he composed a meticulous arrangement of mares and their young which seems to flow across the canvas with an effortless grace appropriate to his subject. The paintings seems all the more attractive to our eyes because of the fact he never had time to add a background. This allows our undistracted eyes to roam freely over his magnificent specimens of horseflesh.
Whistlejacket Whistlejacket was foaled in 1749, and his most famous victory was in a race over four miles for 2000 guineas at York in August 1759. Stubbs's huge picture was painted in about 1762 for the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Whistlejacket's owner and a great patron of Stubbs. According to some writers of the period the original intention was to commission an equestrian portrait of George III, but it is more likely that Stubbs always intended to show the horse alone rearing up against a neutral background. Oil on canvas 292 x 246.4 cm c. 1762
	Hambletonian Rubbing Down The great race horse, Hambletonian, is depicted being rubbed down after his win at Newmarket in 1799, a race in which Stubbs felt he had been driven too hard.He is shown in an impossible pose, standing on his two left legs, his groom's right arm stretched like elastic over his neck. In 1801, George Stubbs sued Sir Henry Vane-Tempest for non payment of his bill for the picture of the famous race horse Hambletonian. c. 1800

In the 1760's, Stubb's began to branch out into portraying wild animals as well. It was during this period that he painted his famous "horse attacked by a lion" (1768 - 1772).

Other commissions included a moose, rhinoceros, baboon, yak, and cheetah. In 1766, his book "The Anatomy of the Horse" was published. More than 200 years later, this book can be found in many contemporary artist's reference libraries. It was more than a book on anatomy, but also a contribution to science. He also did comparative studies on the anatomy of a human, tiger and common fowl. This study was incomplete at his death.

In the 1770s, he experimented with enamel painting. In 1780, he was invited to stay and study with the famous potter, Josiah Wedgwood, at his Etruria headquarters, where he experimented with making large pottery plaques encorporating the enamel process he learned there. In his paintings that were to come, he reverted to oils, mostly on smooth panels instead of canvas.

Stubbs was received into the Royal Academy in 1780, and elected to full membership in 1781. His self portrait, part of which is shown at the top of this page, was done in enamel on a Wedgewood plaque. This shows him at 57 yrs of age. He refused to supply the Diploma work, because the Academy members frowned upon this kind of experimentation and held to the conviction that painting in oils was the proper medium. During this decade, he painted rural life.

As the years went on, his reputation waned and he died in 1806 in financial struggle.