Mr Stubbs the Horse Painter

MR STUBBS THE HORSE PAINTER

a lecture by Carolyn Leder

Stubbs was regarded by his aristocratic, sporting clientele as merely ‘Mr Stubbs the Horse Painter’, a workaday artist. Physically robust, temperamentally energetic and purposeful, he spent time in a remote farmhouse dissecting horses for his The Anatomy of the Horse, 1766. He is now viewed as one of the greatest British artists, and the most profound and original of all animal painters. From the first zebra ever seen in England to a white poodle in a punt, he represented exotic animals, dogs and people with amazing accuracy. His pictures are memorable images: masterpieces of concentrated realism organised into a formal design.