George Stubbs

George Stubbs painted horses better than anyone before him. He studied their anatomy by dissection, and his thoroughbreds, hunters and grooms have a calm, precise realism, often set against simple, open backgrounds.

Born in Liverpool, he was largely self-taught. After spending eighteen months dissecting horses in Lincolnshire, he published The Anatomy of the Horse in 1766. His life-size Whistlejacket is in the National Gallery, London, and his series of a lion attacking a horse is an early example of the Romantic taste for drama in nature. The Yale Center for British Art holds the largest collection of his work.

A Cheetah with Two Indian Attendants and a Stag and A Grey Horse show his precise and patient observation.