Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery looking at their Stubbs exhibition as it came to an end. Aliki Braine discussed the place of Stubbs in the National Gallery with the iconic “Whistlejacket” bookending one end of the longest vista in the gallery. She described him as “A place finder for visitors”. I hadn’t realised that he’d only been acquired by them in 1997. She discussed whether we can consider “Scrub”, the focus of the show, can be considered to be a portrait of a horse, looking at what she felt constitutes a portrait and concluding that it can be. She also looked at the two other projects represented in the show, Stubbs book on the anatomy of the horse and a series of portraits of all the thoroughbred horses over 50 years, a project which failed. This was an interesting lecture but very similar to others I had done on the show. I’d like to see these talks at the end of shows having more of a sense of reflecting on what had been learnt from seeing the wor...

Engaging exhibition at the National Gallery focusing on a portrait of a horse called Scrub by George Stubbs which has been borrowed from a private collection. The wonderful portrait strikes you as you enter the room and you can't help but smile. The level of detail is extraordinary and it feels like he is inviting you to sit down and spend time with him. He was commissioned by the same patron as the famous Whistlejacket who dominates one of the main vistas of the gallery and I like to think that at night they meet up somewhere and catch up on old times. Shown with the portrait are two horse projects by Stubbs , an book on the anatomy of the horse based on dissections which he did and drew at every stage, and a commission to paint all the major racing horses of the previous 50 years. There were two works from the series in the show and you couldn’t help but smile again at Dungannon with his friend, a lamb. Of course I had to go and say hello to Whistlejacket afterwards so he ...

Clear and useful online lecture from the National Gallery introducing their exhibition on Stubbs marking the loan of a portrait of a horse called Scrub. Mary McMahon, curator of the show, introduced us to Scrub and set him in the context of Stubbs career. She took us through the artists career and in particular his paintings, or as she argued portraits of horses. The painting is shown with examples from two of his other projects on horses, an anatomical study for which he dissected horses and drew the structure of their muscles and skeleton, and an attempt to paint all the major thoroughbred horses of the period called “The Turf Project”. I went to the show a few days later and found this to have been an excellent introduction to the show and it meant I got a lot more from the display.

Interesting morning at the National Gallery looking in detail at Whistlejacket by Stubbs led by Nicholas Pace. I know very little about Stubbs so found this session fascinating. I love the picture but knew very little about it other than the slightly random fact of where it was painted for. The talk took us through the amazing anatomical studies Stubbs made of horses and how he went about them, grizzly but interesting. We then went to look at the picture and he talked more about why it may look the way it does and whether it was ever meant to have a background or even a rider. Back in the seminar room we looked at his later work particularly of more exotic animals and of fighting horses and lions which he hoped would boost his reputation with the Academy. What fascinated me most though was seeing Stubbs as an artist of the Enlightenment (forget any hideous time frames which might place him as Rocco!) and very much part of his time working for the rich young gentry and...