Equestrian portraits in honour of George Stubbs
Tomorrow we celebrate the tercentenary of the birth of the great equine artist George Stubbs (1724-1806). In his honour, this article looks at some of the finest paintings of horses following Stubbs’ examples from the late eighteenth century.
Théodore Géricault (1791–1824) was probably introduced to the painting of horses when he was a student of Carle Vernet in Paris, from 1808. He developed his skills in the stables of the palace at Versailles, and became an accomplished rider himself.
Théodore Géricault (1791–1824), The Charging Chasseur (1812), oil on canvas, 349 x 266 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Wikimedia Commons.
In 1812, Géricault submitted his first painting to the Salon. The Charging Chasseur (1812) was not only accepted, but attained such critical acclaim that he was awarded a gold medal, and his future appeared bright. It’s rich with fine detail in the metalwork of the horse’s headstall, and the chasseur’s tunic.
Théodore Géricault (1791–1824), The Epsom Derby (1821), oil on canvas, 91 × 122 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Wikimedia Commons.
In 1820, Géricault accompanied his masterwork The Raft of the Medusa for exhibition in London, and remained in England until the following year. His Epsom Derby painted in 1821 follows the convention of the day in showing galloping racehorses flying through the air without contact with the ground beneath them. The Derby Stakes is a flat race that has been run on Epsom Downs, to the south of London, since 1780. At this time it was run on a Thursday in late May or early June, despite the unseasonal weather seen here.
Tragically, horse riding was also contributor to Géricault’s undoing and untimely death in 1824, at the age of only thirty-two.
Although the British painter James Ward (1769–1859) didn’t set out to specialise in the painting of horses, during the first couple of decades of the nineteenth century he painted the portraits of several famous racehorses.
James Ward (1769–1859), Dr. Syntax, a Bay Racehorse, Standing in a Coastal Landscape, an Estuary Beyond (1820), oil on canvas, 71.8 x 92.1 cm, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT. Wikimedia Commons.
By 1820, Ward was struggling to make ends meet from his art. He struck lucky with two prominent paintings, The Deer Stealer, commissioned by Theophilus Levett, and this portrait of Dr. Syntax, a Bay Racehorse, Standing in a Coastal Landscape, an Estuary Beyond (1820). Doctor Syntax (1811-38) was owned by Ralph Riddell, and raced only in northern England, where he was one of the most successful racehorses of all time. His portrait was painted twice by John Frederick Herring, Senior, and Ward’s turn came in 1820, when the horse won all four of his recorded races.
James Ward (1769–1859), The Moment (1831), oil on wood, 36.7 x 46.6 cm, The Tate Gallery (Purchased 1982), London. © The Tate Gallery and Photographic Rights © Tate (2016), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported), http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ward-the-moment-t03440
Some of Ward’s later paintings of a white horse confronting a huge and menacing boa constrictor (or ‘Liboya Serpent’) have survived. The Moment (1831) is probably the best of these, with its unusually sketchy background.
Horace Vernet (1789–1863), son of Carle who had taught the young Géricault, is best-known for his paintings of battles, including those of the French colonisation of Algeria. He was also among the early artists to have been inspired by Lord Byron’s narrative poem Mazeppa, first published in 1819.
Horace Vernet (1789–1863), Mazeppa and the Wolves (1826), oil on canvas, 97 x 136 cm, Calvet Museum, Avignon, France. Wikimedia Commons.
Vernet’s Mazeppa and the Wolves from 1826 is one of several that he painted of this story.
Théodore Géricault was the young Eugène Delacroix’s (1798–1863) great friend and mentor, and influenced the latter’s paintings of horses.
Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), Combat Between Two Horsemen in Armour (c 1825-30), oil on canvas, 81 x 105 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Wikimedia Commons.
Shortly after Géricault’s untimely death, Delacroix visited tales of chivalry in Combat Between Two Horsemen in Armour, painted at some time between 1825-30.
Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), Horse Frightened by Lightning (1825-29), watercolour, lead white on paper, 23.6 x 32 cm, Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, Hungary. Wikimedia Commons.
Delacroix painted this spirited watercolour of a Horse Frightened by Lightning in the same period.
Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), Combat of the Giaour and Hassan (1835), oil on canvas, 73 x 61 cm, Petit Palais, Paris. Wikimedia Commons.
In 1835, Delacroix returned to Lord Byron’s Orientalist tale of the Giaour, and painted this version of the Combat of the Giaour and Hassan. This time he had the benefit of watching Moroccan cavalry manoeuvres, and a commission from the Comte de Mornay, who had led the diplomatic mission that had earlier taken the artist to North Africa. The resulting composition is radically different from his earlier version, and although Mornay seems to have been pleased with the result, the critics were less impressed.
In 1861, shortly before Delacroix’s death, Edgar Degas’ (1834–1917) interest in horseracing was kindled when he visited a former schoolfriend on his country estate. From about 1869 onwards, his paintings of horseracing often contained substantial landscape passages, and some were perhaps more landscape than racing.
Edgar Degas (1834–1917), At the Races in the Countryside (1869), oil on canvas, 36.5 x 55.9 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA. Wikimedia Commons.
Degas’ At the Races in the Countryside from 1869 combines three contrasting uses for horses: in the foreground a pair are drawing a family in their carriage, in the middle distance they are being ridden as a means of transport, and deeper still they are racing on the flat.
Edgar Degas (1834–1917), Horses in a Meadow (1871), oil on canvas, 31.8 × 40 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Wikimedia Commons.
Horses in a Meadow (1871) is particularly interesting for its inclusion of industrial elements, in the form of smoking chimneys and the steam vessels in the river behind. These are often cited as being characteristic of Impressionist paintings, but are equally typical of Degas’ pursuit of images showing ‘modern life’.
Edgar Degas (1834–1917), Jockeys on Horseback before Distant Hills (1884), oil on canvas, 44.9 × 54.9 cm, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI. Wikimedia Commons.
Finally, Degas’ later Jockeys on Horseback before Distant Hills (1884) shows a group of racehorses idling about as their riders talk, probably prior to a race.
Tomorrow I’ll tell of the unusual career of George Stubbs, who specialised in painting portraits of racehorses.
