The Anatomy of the Horse

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The Anatomy of the Horse is a work by the English painter George Stubbs on the anatomy of the horse, published in London in 1766 .

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The first edition of the book contains 18 engravings by Stubbs' hand along with extensive commentary text. The text is based on the protocols that Stubbs meticulously kept between 1756 and 1758 when dissecting horses and in which each work step is documented step by step. The horse carcasses were dissected in a remote farmhouse in Horkstoke, Lincolnshire . His future wife, Mary Spencer, assisted him with the work. 42 preliminary drawings for the engravings are kept in the collections of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Stubb's anatomical studies were the first since Carlo Ruini's Dell Anatomia et dell'Infirmità del Cavallo of 1598, which, however, only contained rather schematic woodcuts of the horse's anatomy. Since Guignon and Pond, the then leading copper engravers in London, refused to produce engravings based on Stubbs' drawings, Stubbs finally took over the work himself. He used a mixed technique of engraving and etching . The printing was pre-financed through subscriptions . Not only was the work a financial success, but Stubbs received much praise from artists and professionals across Europe. The book was subsequently published several times with only slight text editing, the last time in 2005.

Expenses (selection)

  • The Anatomy of the Horse. London 1766.
  • The Anatomy of the Horse . [Text editing] by James C. McCunn et al. Christopher Wyndham Ottaway. London, G. Heywood Hill 1938. New edition 1965.
  • The Anatomy of the Horse. London, Pallas Athene Publ. 2005. ISBN 978-1843680031 .

literature

  • Malcolm Warner, Robin Blake: Stubbs & the Horse . 2004. ISBN 978-0-30010472-1 .
  • Terence Doherty: The anatomical works of George Stubbs . London: Secker & Warburg 1974.

Web links

Commons : The Anatomy of the Horse  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Giles Lane: The Anatomy of the Horse by George Stubbs , accessed June 22, 2015.
  2. ↑ Doherty 1974. p. 10.