George Stubbs: ‘all done from Nature’
George Stubbs, 'Whistlejacket', c. 1762. © The National Gallery, London
Exhibitions
12 October 2019 - 26 January 2020
George Stubbs: ‘all done from Nature’ presents the first significant overview of this renowned eighteenth century artist-scientist in Britain for more than 30 years. The exhibition brings together 80 paintings, drawings and publications from the National Gallery’s life-size portrait of the stallion Whistlejacket to pieces never previously seen in public.
Alongside his celebrated paintings of horses are some of the first credible paintings of ‘exotic’ animals in Western art, including a rhinoceros, moose, cheetahs and many others. In order to understand the natural world, Stubbs taught himself anatomy and produced forensic drawings of humans and animals at different stages of dissection. These are presented in the exhibition alongside the finished paintings, and the skeleton of the greatest ever racehorse, Eclipse.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication that includes new writings and extensive catalogue entries.
A version of the show will tour to the Mauritshuis in The Hague where it will be the first-ever exhibition on the artist in the Netherlands.
We would like to extend our thanks and appreciation to the George Stubbs: ‘all done from Nature’ Circle of Friends, including David and Jennifer Adams, George and Kirsty Anson, The British Sporting Art Trust, Robert and Felicity Waley-Cohen, Charles and Jane Whitbread and those who wish to remain anonymous.
The exhibition has been funded through a grant from the Weston Loan Programme – a scheme created by the Garfield Weston Foundation and Art Fund to directly fund and empower regional and smaller local authority museums to borrow major works or collections of art from the UK’s national museums and galleries.
