A Horse Affrighted by a Lion
September 25, 1777
Medium
Etching and engraving on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 34.1 × 45.9 cm (13 7/16 × 18 1/8 in.); Sheet: 36.5 × 47.7 cm (14 3/8 × 18 13/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
141454
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
George Stubbs specialized in painting horses, and he frequently invested his compositions with Romantic flair by including ravenous predators and dark and stormy vistas. As seen here, his prints offered appropriately stark contrasts for these imaginative subjects while maintaining a sense of the dramatic; yet his practice of animal portraiture was in fact based on close anatomical study. His oversize 1766 book Anatomy of the Horse included a series of crosssection prints of horses in various pos...
About the Artist
George Stubbs · 1724–1806
Stubbs was a popular painter of horses and dogs who enjoyed many commissions in London throughout the second half of the 18th century. He was elected R.A. in 1781, but this title was removed as he declined to submit a diploma picture. Comment on works: Animals, Sporting