George Stubbs. Horses & Landscapes

An exhibition charting the rise of portraiture and landscape painting in British art from 1620 to 1800.

Stubbs is considered perhaps the greatest horse painter of all time. He captured the spirit of the 18th century gentry at play with their racehorses and had a romantic spirit that captured the wild, untamed elements of nature. Horses and Landscapes brings together horse portraits by Stubbs featuring the dramatic landscape of Creswell Crags, and Welbeck. Included in the exhibition are two almost life-sized horse portraits (5ft x 6ft), commissioned by William Cavendish 1st Duke of Newcastle around 1630, which will be on public display for the first time in four centuries. Stubbs would have seen the two 1630 horse portraits, part of group of twelve unique in Britain. One horse is shown in a dressage position called ‘en levade’ with front hooves rearing – the same in which Stubbs depicted his seminal work, Whistlejacket.

George Stubbs at Welbeck
Horses & Landscapes