George Stubbs

Artist Biography

George Stubbs was born in 1724 in Liverpool. He was a pupil of Hamlet Winstanley for a short time in 1739 and this started off Stubb's career as a portrait painter. During his time in York, Stubbs knew enough anatomy to give private lessons to medical students at York Hospital and this led to his commissions in 1751 to illustrate a book on midwifery by Dr John Burton. His interest in anatomy and its studies continued all his life and proved to be important to his art, prints and posters. In 1766 his painting "The Anatomy of a Horse" was published. This added to his prestige as an artist. He was working on a comparative anatomy of a man, a tiger and a common fowl when he died, leaving them incomplete.

George Stubbs' common-law wife, Mary Spencer, gave birth to his son, George Townley Stubbs in 1756. The family moved to London three years later and lived there until the 1770s. His commissions caused him to travel. He painted a series of masterpieces during this time depicting horses and foals, now famous through art, prints and posters. Some of the horses were painted for their owners but others may have been produced because Stubbs liked to paint variations on the theme mares and foals in a wooded landscape.

In the 1770s, George Stubbs began to experiment with enamel painting. He consulted Josiah Wedgewood about the possibility of making large pottery plaques on which the enamel process could be used. Wedgewood invited Stubbs to stay at his Etruria headquarters to experiment. He lived with the famous potter in 1780 and he created experimental paintings on ceramics. He used the process to make portraits of Wedgewood and his family. Later he reverted to oils but he painted on smooth panels rather than on canvas, evident today in his art, prints and posters.

George Stubbs Art, Prints and Posters Collection