Sweetwilliam by George Stubbs, 1724-1806

George Stubbs, 1724-1806
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Sweetwilliam

Engraving with stipple in black ink. 1796. With the inscription 'G.Stubbs pinxt. ...G.T.Stubbs Sculp.' From the original edition issued by George Stubbs and G.T. Stubbs for the small format 'Review of the Turf', the Turf Gallery, 1796. Before the reprinted edition issued by Orme.
Ref: Lennox-Boyd, Dixon & Clayton-Stubbs Engraved Works 119, ii/iii, before the reissue, with the shaded letter title

Excellent impression with crisp inking. On pale cream medium-weight wove paper. Generally excellent condition; the faintest suggestion of time staining. Approx. 1/8inch margins beyond the platemark (sheet corner tips 'trimmed on an angle' not clipping the platemark. Sheet: 8 1/4 x 10
1/4ins. Plate: 8 x 9 7/8ins (202x252mm)

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Stubbs was not only amongst the greatest of all English eighteenth-century painters, it is now widely recognized that he was also one of the most individual and creatively-inspired printmakers of the period. He brought to etching a feeling for the way that unique qualities of draughtsmanship, of light and shade, and of visual atmosphere, could be found through a creative, free-thinking and personally inventive use of the widest possible range of techniques. His interest in etching and engraving stemmed from the necessity of finding ways of creating income when he first came to London in 1760, and grew into a passion which he ranked as important creatively as his painting.

Stubbs made his reputation as a painter through his inspired portraits of racehorses. Horse racing was a central feature of aristocratic life in the eighteenth century, and it was amongst those aristocrats that Stubbs needed to find his patrons. At the same time he saw inherent qualities of power, strength and linear beauty in the thoroughbred lines of the animals. Although such themes were to be central to his painting he did not himself make prints of them. For this he worked with his son George Townly Stubbs, inspiring in him an almost equal passion for the inherent beauties of etching and engraving. The prints of the racehorses made by G. T. Stubbs under his father's supervision were not only a very significant element in spreading Stubbs' reputation as an artist, they were also to be amongst the finest examples of the English eighteenth century sporting print, and great works of art in their own right.

The impression of Sweetwilliam, above, is typical of the smaller scale versions of G. T. Stubbs' prints after George Stubbs' paintings.

However, it was Stubbs' own growing interest in printmaking which was to provide a channel for expressing the other aspect of his art, his unique vision of the Romantic. The concept of the emotional drama of the Romantic was an idea which came to the fore in, for example, art in the late eighteenth century. In landscape naturalism was taking-over from the formal, emotion was becoming the dominating theme. Stubbs saw the force and emotional power of romantic energy expressed through the wild but beautiful strength of animals - in horses, but not the controlled strength of the racehorse, rather the savage independence of the wild horse, and the ferocious power of animals like lions and tigers who were only just then becoming widely appreciated by the public through captured animals in zoos. He saw it especially in the fierce drama of confrontations and fights amongst wild animals.

Stubbs' compositions of fighting or frightened horses were to become some of the greatest and most influential of all Romantic images. Stubbs developed his ideas in this field to a large extent through his prints. His passionate involvement in the imagery led him to equally passionate experiments with technique in etching. The resulting prints have remained amongst the greatest of masterpieces in the history of British printmaking.

The market for Stubbs' great romantic prints was, at least at first, very small, and as a result relatively few impressions were printed. Those that were printed were also frequently treated as mere decorative works, pasted into scrap albums, onto the walls of 'print rooms' in private houses, or over-painted with colour or even glaze to make them appear more like 'paintings' (see 'A Lion Devouring a Horse). As a result Stubbs' great romantic prints have become very rare today, and examples that can be found are more often than not in less than perfect condition.