Anatomy of the Horse

George Stubbs.

Hardback, dust jacket, second hand.

Universally recognized as one of the most important works on the subject, George Stubbs Anatomy of the Horse was first published over two hundred years ago. In 1938 two eminent members of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in London summarized the information given in the original, made copious notes and paraphrased the older diction. The present volume is a reprint of that later edition.

An early training in drawing and engraving, coupled with his experience as a student and lecturer in anatomy, led Stubbs to undertake several years of painstaking dissection and recording at a lonely farmhouse in Lincolnshire. The fruits of this dedication were the scientific notes and meticulously detailed drawings which he himself engraved to produce the thirty-six plates comprising his master-work. Following its publication, he went on to become the best-known English painter of horses of his time and an important influence on later sporting art.

Beginning with the skeletal structure, Stubbs offers three views of his subject in both diagrammatic and representational form: from the side, from the head, and from the tail. He then repeats the same three views to show separately the mus cular, nervous, circulatory and glandular systems. All the diagrams are heavily annotated so that every vein or ligament can be identified by the artist's accompanying explanations.

Intended, as Stubbs himself states, for use by painters and sculptors, farriers and horse-doctors, breeders and owners of this beautiful and useful animal Anatomy of the Horse has lost none of its value as a classic book of reference for any of these. It is also a work of art to be appreciated in its own right.

GEORGE STUBBS was born at Liverpool in 1724. His father, a currier and leather-dresser, encouraged his son's studies in drawing and anatomy. At the age of fifteen he engaged himself to Hamlet Winstanley, who was then employed at Knowsley Hall in copying and engraving plates from the paintings in the Earl of Derby's collection. They soon quarrelled and Stubbs left him, deciding never again to copy any pictures but "to look into Nature for himself, and consult and study her only." When he was about twenty he set up as a portrait painter in Leeds, but a lucky commission took him to York where he was able to continue his anatomical studies under a local surgeon. He progressed so rapidly that he was soon giving lectures on the subject to the hospital students. In 1754 he went to Italy in order to put his opinion, that Nature is superior to all Art, to a severe test. He came back quickly so that he should not change his mind.

During the following few years Stubbs was engaged on his preparations for "The Anatomy of the Horse." Most of the dissections and drawings were made at a lonely farmhouse in Lincolnshire. His companion, Miss Mary Spencer, who has been described both as his aunt and his niece but who was possibly neither, was the only person sufficiently enthusiastic or fond to be able to stand the smell. Stubbs is said to have been able to carry a dead horse up two or three flights of stairs to his dissecting room. By 1776 "The Anatomy of the Horse" was completed, and the work on its publication gave him a European reputation, both in science and art.

His position was now established and he came to London, where Joshua Reynolds was among his early patrons. He painted most of the famous race horses of his day. He died suddenly in July 1806, at the age of 82, having carried a portmanteau sixteen miles a few days before.