George Stubbs 1724-1806

George Stubbs, self portrait

The son of a currier (specialist leather finisher) and leather merchant, he had a brief apprenticeship to a painter and engraver where he soon left as he objected to copying.

In around 1745-51 he studied human anatomy at York County Hospital. It was a subject which had long fascinated him, and I might speculate that he would have had an early introduction to anatomy as his father's trade would have doubtless brought him into contact with all the other processes of leather production from slaughterhouse upwards. This led to him contributing the drawings for a book on midwifery.

Illustration from "A Complete New System of Midwifery" (1751)

In 1756 he and his common law wife Mary Spencer spent 18 months dissecting horses, this cumulated in the publication of his book "The Anatomy of the Horse" ten years later. The original drawings are now in the collection of the Royal Academy.

In 1759 the 3rd Duke of Richmond commissioned three large paintings, as his work ws already seen to be far more anatomically correct than those of his peers, and his depiction of a short coat showed the animal's musculature to best advantage. Some of his work broke with tradition in having a plain background and the best known is "Whistlejacket".

Whistlejacket (about 1762)

This helped establish him as a major artist of the day. Many of his patrons were the noblemen who were to form the Jockey Club. He painted portraits as well as horses, often adding in a groom or stableboy portrayed in a realistic manner and pose.



Pumpkin with a Stable-lad (1774)

 In later life he painted a series of dogs, and produced some paintings of wild exotic animals which he observed in private menageries.



Zebra (1762-3)

 These were often developed into dramatic paintings often depicting horses startled or attacked by lions. The dynamic poses allowed him to fully illustrate the muscles and tendons to accentuate the drama of the scene.



Horse attacked by a lion (1762)

His work in studying the horse remains the principal reference work to this day and is required reading for trainee vetinarians.