Stubbs and Wallinger The Horse in Art

George Stubbs, Bay Hunter by a Lake  1787

Stubbs’s paintings of animals convey a feeling of grandeur and nobility, combined with a sense of exacting realism. This unidentified bay horse probably belonged to Arthur Annesley, 9th Viscount Valentia. The horse’s ears are cropped and its tail docked in accordance with contemporary fashion. Stubbs’s earlier horse portraits usually showed the animal accompanied by a groom, stable boy, jockey or owner. However, in many later works, such as this, the horse is shown in solitude.

Gallery label, May 2007

George Stubbs, Horse Attacked by a Lion  1769

This is Stubbs’s earliest known attempt at painting in enamel colours. It was the first time the technique – previously limited to decorative objects – had been used by an artist of Stubbs's stature.

His experiment with a new medium may have been an effort to enhance or preserve the vibrancy of his colours. He experimented for several years with the chemical changes of colours under high temperatures, as well as improving the support upon which the painting was made. Although a copper plate was used for this octagonal composition, he later commissioned large ceramic tablets from Josiah Wedgwood.

Gallery label, September 2004

George Stubbs, Otho, with John Larkin up  1768

Otho had proved only moderately successful on the race-track until 1767, the last year of his racing career, when he had several victories at Newmarket. This portrait with a mounted jockey, beside one of the rubbing-down houses at Newmarket, was presumably commissioned to celebrate these achievements.

Stubbs was often limited to painting standard horse portraits for proud owners. However, even in conventional subjects such as this, he raised the genre to a poetic level. His subtle atmospheric effects evoke the tension of racing, as the storm-clouds hint that the sunlight in which the horse and rider stand may be fitful.

Gallery label, September 2004

George Stubbs, A Grey Hunter with a Groom and a Greyhound at Creswell Crags  c.1762–4

The landscape setting is Creswell Crags, Nottinghamshire, which Stubbs also used as the background for many of his more dramatic horse and lion subjects. The grey hack here presumably belonged to a nobleman or gentleman. Its stocky build and short legs made it ideally suited for hare coursing, following the greyhound over the rocky moorland.

Between the two animals stands a man dressed in livery, either a groom or hunt servant. The subtle linear rhythms of the horse, groom and greyhound give a sense of movement to the living creatures that is contrasted with the solidity of the looming crags.

Gallery label, September 2004

Mark Wallinger, Half-Brother (Exit to Nowhere - Machiavellian)  1994–5

This is one of four paintings depicting hybrid racehorses which Wallinger made in 1994-5. The paintings are all titled Half Brother with individual subtitles, made up of the names of the two horses from which the halves are taken, in parentheses to distinguish them and share a similar structure. Each consists of two abutting canvases bringing together the two halves of the horse. The horses are painted realistically in thin oil against a white ground. Wallinger derived the horses from photographs in the Jockey Club’s official record of thoroughbred stallions. He projected the photographs onto the large canvases and copied them. In each painting, the horse’s forequarters appear on the left panel and its hindquarters on the right. The bodies’ outlines connect only approximately at the point where the canvases join. Different colouring and variation in build between the horses’ halves result in incongruous blends. In Half Brother (Exit to Nowhere – Machiavellian) the horse’s head and shoulders are an ochre-brown, turning to black on its forelegs. The rear half of its body is a uniform rich, glossy black, broken only by a narrow white band above its left hoof. The painting’s title reflects on the significance of pedigree in horse breeding while the subtitle directs the work towards a particular reading. In racing terminology, ‘half brother’ may only be used for animals sharing the same mother. The words ‘Exit to Nowhere’ suggest that the inbreeding typical to pedigree animals (not only horses) may be ultimately unproductive. The appellation ‘Machiavellian’, evoking the Italian political philosopher Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) whose name has become synonymous with deviousness and expediency, hints rather ambiguously at cunning. The other subtitles in the series are Jupiter Island – Precocious (Collection Vanhaerents, Torhout), Diesis - Keen (private collection, Belgium) and Unfuwain – Nashwan (private collection).