1724-1806
Stubbs painted portraits in York while he studied anatomy and taught medicine. In 1754 he traveled to Rome to prove to himself that such travels were unnecessary because "Nature is superior to art." On his return he witnessed a lion devouring a horse, and this image haunted him for the rest of his life and became one of his most admired subjects. After some years in retirement in Lincolnshire, where he dissected and drew horses, he settled in London in the 1760s and worked as an animal painter while he worked on his Anatomy of the Horse (1766). He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1781 but never confirmed. During his final years he worked on a comparative anatomy of man, tiger, and fowl, the text and drawings of which were not discovered until 1957 in Worcester, Massachusettes.
Paintings by Stubbs hang in most major London museums.
Horse Devoured by a Lion (Exhibited 1763)
Horse Frightened by a Lion (1763)
Mares and Foals in River Landscape (ca. 1763-8)
A Couple of Fox Hounds (1792)