#44 Whistlejacket

Originally published in my PHD in Curiosity email newsletter in 2016

1762. Britain declares war on Spain in Europe, captures Grenada from France in Europe, fights France (and the natives) in the North American front, captures Havana (of Spain) and Manila (of Spain, in the Philippines) and Naples (of Italy, in Europe) so to say they were a bit busy might be an understatement. They were a bit busy. Meanwhile, one man was bravely doing none of that. George Stubbs was a horse painter.

It should be noted that animal painters in general were some of the lowest classes of artists, for animals were a lesser genre than kings and architecture. Nonetheless, George was into them. He studied anatomy at the York Hospital and had a barn with a clever pulley system so he could pose horses for study, spending some years simply dissecting and researching them. His career included a lot of textbook illustrations, both animal and human - his earliest of the latter was a detailed guide for midwifery. Then he did portraits for a number of years, but always came back around to the four legged sort. As he painted more and more horses he caught the eye of aristocracy who had too many horses and too much money themselves.

So there were a lot of paintings like this: some racehorse or favourite of a noble and the surrounding barn, including a portrait of the nobleman himself on or near the horse. This was before cameras, of course, so if you had the money this was how you commissioned memories of the things you did and the horses you had. And then this happened:

Whistlejacket. A horse painting unlike any other. Of course, the most immediate difference is the lack of background. This was a stark departure from the standard paintings of the romantic era and rumours quickly swept around: Some say the notoriously tempered Whistlejacket saw the painting and thinking it was a rival stallion started fighting the trainer. The painting was barely saved from the room, and upon hearing this story the Marques thought it so fitting that he hung the painting unfinished. Some say the original intent was to have George paint the horse and then other artists fill in the portrait and the background respectively, and it simply never happened. Some say it was intended as a gift for the king but as the wartime efforts changed political favour; support for the painting work was dropped. In the end, it was likely finished and intentionally this way - the shadows under the hooves and the fact that paintings are typically done background to front so you can paint over the edge suggest that this was indeed as intended.

Other aspects to note: it's huge. Nearly life sized. It was commissioned by Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham who served as both prime minister and house of lords and was very rich, even compared to his aristocratic surroundings. He built a 40 foot square viewing room just for this painting and commissioned several more background-less horse paintings in the years following. It's painted wild. There's no bridle, no saddle, the tail is left long instead of cut short as was the style at the time (see the above portrait and notice the short tail). The pose was exclusively used to paint riders in heroic stoicism to an unruly horse, yet here was a horse by itself the focus of the frame. The horse himself was grandsired by the Godolphin Arabian, one of the three horses from which all thoroughbreds bloodlines come. Whistlejacket was an alright horse, all told, and so temperamental there was only one man who could lead him in and out of the stable. He won a bunch of races, lost a few, and ultimately retired in good standing. George didn't retire, however, and worked until he died at the age of 81, leaving his last painting unfinished. He did paint a portrait of a kangaroo and a "large dog" (which was actually a dingo) marking the first appearance of Australian animals in western art. George Stubbs died broke but his most expensive painting ever sold was bought for 22 million pounds in 2011, so that's like $38 million Canadian or $28 milly USD or five Bitcoins. From what can be gleaned, he seemed to have a good life. He loved horses and got to paint them for 60 years, and arguably changed the world of animal art forever. Do what you love. It's not about the money.