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

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

Labourers

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, in the Poultry London *** Engraved by Henry Birche/ LABOURERS./ To Andrews Harrison Esqr. This Plate from the original Picture in his Collection/ Is most respectfully Inscribed by his much obliged and obedient Servant/ Benjn. Beale Evans.'. Plate mark: 17 ½ x 25 ¾ inches.

A beautiful portrait of outdoor labourers commission by Lord Torrington, from 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 original painting of 'Labourers' was one of a group of three portraits of outdoor servants commissioned by Lord Torrington and painted in 1767. By 1790, this painting and its companion work, Game Keepers were part of the collection of Andrews 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 87, iv/iv; Gilbey no. 26; Le Blanc, Birche no. 1; Siltzer The Story of British Sporting Prints p.271; Snelgrove no. 40; Stipple no. 266; Wessely no. 142

#3628

$12,000.00