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拍品专文
George Stubbs (1724-1806) stands as a pivotal figure in British art history whose contributions transcended conventional categorization. Born in Liverpool to a currier, Stubbs developed largely as an autodidact despite brief training under Hamlet Winstanley. His early anatomical teaching at York Hospital established a methodical rigor that would characterize his entire artistic career.
The period from 1756- to 1758 proved transformative: Stubbs rented a Lincolnshire farmhouse in order to conduct systematic equine dissections. This empirical investigation culminated in his seminal publication The Anatomy of the Horse (1766), which brilliantly synthesized artistic representation with scientific inquiry through eighteen meticulously etched plates. These works demonstrate his remarkable development as a printmaker—progressing from fairly crude engravings in 1751 to sophisticated techniques by the time of the Anatomy prints in 1766, likely influenced by his association with engravers from the Society of Artists, particularly William Woollett.
Unlike contemporaries such as John Singleton Copley (1738-1815), the American-born artist who relocated to England in 1774 who prioritized mass production, Stubbs's approach to printmaking was characterized by artistic autonomy rather than commercial success, and to this end he made plates, especially after 1780, which did not lend themselves to retouching and could provide far fewer prints. Professional engravers had already established Stubbs's fame, and as a painter with a successful practice he was free from financial pressures typically governing print publishing.
Stubbs's choice of subjects reveal his ambition to transcend his reputation as merely a 'horse-painter.' His first separately published print and his first version of this subject, A Horse Affrighted by a Lion of 1777 (Lennox-Boyd 59), established his preeminence in depicting emotion in animals while employing techniques imitating the more prestigious line-engraving associated with history painting. After an interval of eight years, during which Stubbs published nothing, he produced a group of twelve plates, including the present one, a composition that closely resembles the painting in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
The virtuoso prints of 1788 (see also lots 30 and 31) displayed Stubbs's technical mastery through innovative combinations of soft-ground etching, roulette, and punch work, with the aim of achieving highly nuanced tonal effects.
The present sheet is the only recorded working proof, before the completion of the plate, and the only one printed on laid paper - the edition was printed on wove paper. According to Lennox-Boyd 'this proof provides a unique insight into Stubbs's procedure when engraving this plate, and others in the 1788 series. The centripetal structure of the design, which seems to suck the horse into the depths of the cave from where the shock radiates, has a subliminal effect in the finished work but is dramatically emphatic in the proof. The importance of geometry to the impact of Stubbs's images is once again apparent. Moreover, it is clear that in this instance at least, Stubbs first etched the outlies in a networks of minute strokes and rings and then modelled his subjects with further etching and various punches and roulettes.' (1989, p. 186)
The period from 1756- to 1758 proved transformative: Stubbs rented a Lincolnshire farmhouse in order to conduct systematic equine dissections. This empirical investigation culminated in his seminal publication The Anatomy of the Horse (1766), which brilliantly synthesized artistic representation with scientific inquiry through eighteen meticulously etched plates. These works demonstrate his remarkable development as a printmaker—progressing from fairly crude engravings in 1751 to sophisticated techniques by the time of the Anatomy prints in 1766, likely influenced by his association with engravers from the Society of Artists, particularly William Woollett.
Unlike contemporaries such as John Singleton Copley (1738-1815), the American-born artist who relocated to England in 1774 who prioritized mass production, Stubbs's approach to printmaking was characterized by artistic autonomy rather than commercial success, and to this end he made plates, especially after 1780, which did not lend themselves to retouching and could provide far fewer prints. Professional engravers had already established Stubbs's fame, and as a painter with a successful practice he was free from financial pressures typically governing print publishing.
Stubbs's choice of subjects reveal his ambition to transcend his reputation as merely a 'horse-painter.' His first separately published print and his first version of this subject, A Horse Affrighted by a Lion of 1777 (Lennox-Boyd 59), established his preeminence in depicting emotion in animals while employing techniques imitating the more prestigious line-engraving associated with history painting. After an interval of eight years, during which Stubbs published nothing, he produced a group of twelve plates, including the present one, a composition that closely resembles the painting in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
The virtuoso prints of 1788 (see also lots 30 and 31) displayed Stubbs's technical mastery through innovative combinations of soft-ground etching, roulette, and punch work, with the aim of achieving highly nuanced tonal effects.
The present sheet is the only recorded working proof, before the completion of the plate, and the only one printed on laid paper - the edition was printed on wove paper. According to Lennox-Boyd 'this proof provides a unique insight into Stubbs's procedure when engraving this plate, and others in the 1788 series. The centripetal structure of the design, which seems to suck the horse into the depths of the cave from where the shock radiates, has a subliminal effect in the finished work but is dramatically emphatic in the proof. The importance of geometry to the impact of Stubbs's images is once again apparent. Moreover, it is clear that in this instance at least, Stubbs first etched the outlies in a networks of minute strokes and rings and then modelled his subjects with further etching and various punches and roulettes.' (1989, p. 186)