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Lot Essay
This is a particularly beautiful example of Stubbs's late work. As would be expected in a picture from this period of the artist's oeuvre, the landscape is painted very freely, while the subject itself is treated with all the subtlety and perception that establishes Stubbs as an unrivalled painter of animals.
Several key elements of the composition - the presumably idealised landscape and the stance and direction of the horse - are shared by other late horse portraits by the artist (e.g. Ballarina, of 1800, Truss, also of 1803, and Eagle and Ambrosio, both of 1804). Yet the present work, in its state of preservation and the elegance with which the animal's conformation is recorded, stands apart as being particularly fine.
Davies Davenport, High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1783, and M.P. for Cheshire 1806-1830, was noted as being 'markedly independent' in parliament (History of the House of Commons, 1790-1820, III, 1986, pp. 571-72).
We are grateful to Judy Egerton for her help with this catalogue entry.
Several key elements of the composition - the presumably idealised landscape and the stance and direction of the horse - are shared by other late horse portraits by the artist (e.g. Ballarina, of 1800, Truss, also of 1803, and Eagle and Ambrosio, both of 1804). Yet the present work, in its state of preservation and the elegance with which the animal's conformation is recorded, stands apart as being particularly fine.
Davies Davenport, High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1783, and M.P. for Cheshire 1806-1830, was noted as being 'markedly independent' in parliament (History of the House of Commons, 1790-1820, III, 1986, pp. 571-72).
We are grateful to Judy Egerton for her help with this catalogue entry.