![]() After the horses had bled to death, a wax-like fluid was injected into the arteries and nerves in order to preserve their natural shape. For his dissections, Stubbs would retire to a farm with a large barn in Horkstow. That would have been the only possible way at the time, since it was impossible in the 18th century to store and transport horses that died of natural causes in refrigerated conditions. For example, we know that the (usually old) horses were killed especially for dissections. We can infer how Stubbs worked from his memoirs. Stubbs' method: fascinating and quite remarkable The lifelike portraits of living horses are characteristic of Stubbs' work they were immediately recognisable to the owners. Noble families often owned horses, a status symbol in the 18th century, and were thus keen to see their horse immortalised. That was related to the popularity of equestrian sports. Horse paintings were particularly popular at the time. London is also where he received his first assignments as a horse painter. However, Stubbs' etching technique left something to be desired, so he moved to London where he hoped to collaborate with prominent engravers. In order to distribute his work, prints of it had to be made. He spent months dissecting horses and making anatomical drawings. Stubbs saw a challenge and an opportunity to position himself as an expert on the topic. It was the only animal that had already been the subject of an anatomical study, but this study no longer met the scientific standard. This is most likely where he decided to dive into the horse anatomy. He settled in York, where he took up anatomy lessons. He was popular and his commissions eventually provided him with the financial freedom to specialise in anatomy. That belief makes him fit in perfectly with an important contemporary current: the Enlightenment.Īlthough anatomy was Stubbs' passion, in the 18th century he first made a name for himself as portrait painter of the elite, since that was one way to actually make money. He was convinced that the study of nature was necessary in order to be able to make true art. Thanks to his success as a portrait painter, George Stubbs was able to financially afford to also devote himself, almost obsessively, to his great passion: painting horses from an anatomical, almost scientific basis. He put that dream into practice and seems to have managed to successfully develop, as an autodidact, into a portrait painter of the local elite. Stubbs' father hoped that his son would succeed him in the family business, but George's dream was to become an artist. His interest in the combination of anatomy and art was thus awakened early on. A neighbour gave him animal bones, which he then drew at home. Stubbs proved to have a talent for drawing from a young age. Clayton is one of many experts to seriously doubt the attribution.George Stubbs (1724-1806) was born in Liverpool and worked as a child in his father's leather business. There is also a Turin drawing of an old man, Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk, which has been attributed to Leonardo as a self-portrait. Kenneth Clark, in his 1935 catalogue of the Leonardo drawings, mentions it as an aside. It is not the first time that the idea of a second sketch of Leonardo has been articulated, although it has largely fallen through the gaps of art history. A paralysis in his left arm had left him unable to paint. ![]() ![]() He was around 65 years old and he knew he was dying. The melancholic expression chimes in with feelings that historians know Leonardo was experiencing at the time. Leonardo would have been “one of the few bearded men around at that time”, said Clayton. The similarities between it and Melzi’s formal sketch seem obvious when seen side by side, particularly the shape of the beard which at the time, around 1517-18, was unusual. The sketch of a smiling youth and an older man possibly done by an assistant, alongside Leonardo’s sketch of a horse’s leg.
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