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STUBBS, George & Amos GREEN engraved by `Henry Birche' [i.e. Robert Laurie and Richard Earlom]

Game Keepers

London: Published by Benjamin Beale Evans, 25 May,1790. Mezzotint. State iv/iv, with the title in closed letters and the etched inscription `Painted by George Stubbs, R.A./ Landscape by Amos Green Esqr: Bath *** Publish'd May 25 1790. by B.B. Evans, Poultry London *** Engraved by Henry Birche/ GAME KEEPERS./ To the Right Honble Lord Viscount Torrington This Plate is respectfully inscribed/ By his Lordship's obliged and very obedient Servant/ Benjn. Beale Evans.'. Plate mark: 17 ½ x 25 ¾ inches.

A beautiful portrait of the eccentric gamekeeper Joseph Mann, by the celebrated sporting artist George Stubbs.

George Stubbs is considered one of the greatest English painters. His ingenious animal and sporting portraits remain unrivalled in their passionate depiction of emotion and their commitment to naturalistic observation. Stubbs' was briefly apprenticed to the painter Hamlet Winstanley, a relationship that quickly ended, leaving the young artist to his own tuition. In contrast to contemporary academic theory, Stubbs' attached great importance to the belief that art should imitate nature, not the work of other artists. He spent years carefully studying human and equine anatomy so that he could truthfully represent natural form and movement. A result of this study was his famous 'Anatomy of the Horse', which details, with beautiful engraving, the various elements of a horse's anatomy, from skeletal form to muscular definition. Continuing in search on innovation, Stubbs began experimenting with a myriad of different mediums, becoming accomplished in both enamels and printmaking. Through arduous application, he became a talented mezzotint engraver and worked with ease in both soft ground, and etching techniques. Stubbs' masterful paintings inspired some of the greatest engravers of the day to reproduce his work for publication, including his own son George Townly Stubbs who reproduced with faithful accuracy the sublime emotion inherent in his father's exquisite works. Stubbs was elected director of the Society of Artists and a Royal Academician, and today his prized paintings are housed in some of the finest museums in the world.

The painting from which 'Game Keepers' was taken was commissioned by Lord Torrington in 1767, as one of three portraits of his outdoor servants. The gamekeeper portrayed here isJoseph Mann, who worked as huntsman and then gamekeeper for three successive Lords Torringtons between 1733 and 1777. Mann's durability was legendary amongst sportsmen and "he was looked upon by the neighbors as a prodigy." By 1790, this painting and its companion work 'Labourers' were part of the collection of Andrew Harrison who commissioned Amos Green to replace the background views, of the Southill estate, with generalized rustic scenery. The identity of the engraver Henry Birche has been disputed, but research indicates the possibility that the name may represent a collaboration between Richard Earlom and Robert Laurie.

Lennox-Boyd, George Stubbs 88, iv/iv; Gilbey no. 33; Le Blanc, Birche no. 2; Siltzer The Story of British Sporting Prints p.271; Snelgrove no. 40; Wessely no. 143

#3627

$12,000.00