Research Point: Animal Anatomy and George Stubbs

Look at the skeletal structure of the cat, dog or horse:

I think I've got an unfair advantage on this research point as an animal surgeon. I've studied animal anatomy for several years. Worked as a vet for more than 20, and I've also taught anatomy at undergraduate level. I've taken the liberty of not uploading any anatomical diagrams as if I need them I have access to Miller's Anatomy of the Dog and Dyce, Sack and Wensing's textbook of Veterinary Anatomy on my bookshelves at home and at work. 

However, having said that I don't necessarily think that all this experience with animals will make me any better at drawing them. What it might give me is the ability to better discern when my drawings are anatomically incorrect. however, I think that too much knowledge about a drawing subject might actually interfere with the drawing of it. There may well be a tendency for my left brain's knowledge of anatomy to over-rule my right brain making me want to draw what I know rather than what I see.

Research the anatomical drawings of George Stubbs (1724 - 1806) and consider how these inform Stubbs' finished pieces.

The name of George Stubbs escaped me as a stressed 17 year old facing a panel of 6 interviewers during my interview for Vet School (far too many years ago to mention) so George Stubbs always has negative associations in my mind for that reason alone. The conversation went like this:

Interviewer: " I see you like drawing and painting as a Hobby - do you paint animals?"
Me: " Erm... no, they don't tend to sit still"
Interviewer: " Do you think that studying animal anatomy and doing animal dissections will help you with your drawing?"
Me: " Erm... it might do. There's a book in the library about a famous artist who used to dissect horses to help him to paint them. His name was Um....Um... Well anyway he was quite famous"

I still cringe when I think about that - but I will never again forget the name of George Stubbs!

Stubbs was born in Liverpool and was the son of a Currier (a specialised leather worker who shaved leather for fine leatherwork). 

As a young boy Stubbs' interest in anatomy was encouraged by his neighbour Dr Holt who provided him with dissection specimens to draw. His father, however despite liking his son's draughtsmanship and the scientific interest he had could not see being an artist as a good way to earn a living and( jokingly) advised him to 'learn the fiddle' so that he could at least busk to feed himself.

To train as an artist he was initially apprenticed to Hamlet Winstanley and his training was to consist of copying various old masters at a stately home. When they couldn't agree on which paintings Stubbs should be allowed to copy the apprenticeship dissolved. Hence Stubbs ended up being mostly self taught. He also became very averse to the practice of copying other artists' work preferring to draw directly from nature. In this he was inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci who had urged artists ' not to represent the works of man, but those of nature who at the the same time is so abundant in her production that it is ridiculous to have recourse to her servants who have nothing but what they borrowed from her.' (1)

Stubbs studies from life go against the convention of the time in that artists were supposed to learn their craft and the representation of human anatomy by copying statues and busts of idealised forms. There were several obstacles to Stubb's endeavours in anatomically accurate drawing. The biblical belief at the time was that people needed their human remains to remain  intact in order to rise again. People were given a 'decent Christian Burial and murderers were hung drawn and quartered to prevent their resurrection. Surgeons were hated (there were no anaesthetics) and their practices as well as medical dissections were considered abhorrent. Stubbs would have come into contact with some unsavoury characters in order to procure specimens for the study of human anatomy ( Grave robbers). When in 1747 the Obstetrician John Burton asked him to illustrate 'An Essay Towards a Complete New system of Midwifry' Stubbs somehow managed to procure the body of a woman who had died in childbirth. He would have used this one body for all of his drawings by removing the fetus and replacing it in many different positions. He was not satisfied with the quality of the etchings he produced and left these unsigned and anonymous. 

Stubbs major work on horse anatomy came after this when he moved to rural Lincolnshire around 1756. He suspended a series of horses from an iron bar with hooks placed through its ribs and proceeded to progressively dissect the integument and musculature. He worked on this project for 18 months and some of the drawings he produced are shown below. He had envisaged his work being of use also to Veterinary Surgeons. However as his prime concern was the muscular and skeletal structure of the animal to inform his subsequent paintings, he discarded all the internal organs so his works were not really appropriate for Vets. (1) (2)
 From his drawings he engraved 18 plates for printing. He was unable to find a publisher initially his engravings not being in line with the fashion for embellishment and decoration with landscape in anatomical drawings. However it was from his anatomical drawings that he made contacts with prominent people who were interested in hunting and horse racing and he started to get commissions for hunting scenes and portraits of great racehorses.

Figures one and two show two different view of a flayed horse
and its superficial musculature

Figures three and four show progression of an equine dissection

Stubbs' paintings are certainly informed by his study of anatomy. The horses are proportionate and the musculature is accurate. However, personally I am not drawn to his work. There is something very formal and static about the way he represents the animals. This was obviously in line with the fashion of the day. However, even in paintings which represent animals in various phases of motion such as this example here of a hunt there is something strangely static about them. The prancing and jumping horses in that example do not look as if they have been caught instantaneously and that their momentum will cause them to continue on their path immediately. Instead they look as though they have been frozen forever. Is this the result of spending a lot of time studying dead animals? Stubbs was certainly was influenced by Leonardo Da Vinci but rather than capturing that vitality of animals in motion as Leonardo did I feel that again Stubbs , like Durer again makes the animals into objects to be accurately and scientifically rendered. I don't warm to these animals - to me they are still lives rather than portraits of living creatures.

There are a couple of exceptions to this including the Rearing Portrait of Whistlejacket which captures the fear in the horse's expression. Also in the picture below you get a great sense of the animal's power and that the owner and groom are struggling to control this prancing, highly strung horse.

Compare those paintings to this one:

Theres something stiff and not quite right about the animal's gait. I'd say that Stubbs was a master at representing the anatomy of horses in painting but he didn't always get it quite right when looking at their motion.

(1) George Stubbs and the Wide Creation: Animals, People and Places in the Life of George Stubbs 1724-1806 Robin Blake (Chatto and Windus 2005)

(2) Stubbs, George Biography by Judy Egerton Grove Art Online Via Oxford Art online . www.oxfordartonline.com:80/subscriber/article/grove/art/T081954