MK Gallery - George Stubbs: 'all done from nature'

George Stubbs, Whistlejacket, 1762. Bought with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, 1997 © THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON

MK Gallery presents George Stubbs: ‘all done from Nature’, the first significant overview of Stubbs’s work in Britain for more than 30 years. The exhibition brings together 100 paintings, drawings and publications from the National Gallery’s Whistlejacket to pieces that have never been seen in public.

Today, Stubbs is recognised as one of the most original artists of the eighteenth century. His wide-ranging subjects included portraits, conversation pieces and pictures of exotic and domestic animals—horses included—and his obsession with scientific exactitude has drawn comparison with the work of Leonardo da Vinci.

A major theme of the exhibition is anatomy. The show includes forensic drawings by Stubbs of humans, tigers and hens, as well as horses, at different stages of ‘undressing’. This coming together of art and science in British art will be set alongside the actual skeleton of the legendary racehorse Eclipse which Stubbs depicted on several occasions.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with major contributions from Alison Wright, Jenny Uglow, Martin Myrone, Martin Postle and Nicholas Clee as well as new and existing poetry by Roger Robinson.

A version of the show will tour to the Mauritshuis in The Hague where it will be the first-ever exhibition on the artist in the Netherlands.

For more information and how to book tickets, please, click here