It also includes several paintings owned by the Tate Gallery in London and one from The Royal Veterinary College in London. Take a right onto Boulevard and travel 1.6 miles to Grove Avenue. The museum is on the right with free parking behind the building. Once dismissed as a provincial painter on the fringes of the establishment, Mr. Stubbs has gained favor among art historians equal to the masters of the time, Thomas Gainesborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds. The exhibition includes 39 oil paintings of horses, dogs, African animals, several portraits, sporting scenes and a landscape.
Numerous prints made from studies for larger paintings comprise almost half of the exhibit.
The artist, his son George Townley Stubbs and master printers William Woollett, Thomas Burke and George Dixon prepared the printing plates with a variety of techniques including engraving, Mezzotint, etching and soft ground etching. Nineteen individual anatomical studies of horses, chickens, dogs and humans sketched during the last few years of the artist's life complete the exhibit. The stable boy attempting to feed a chestnut horse with the backdrop of an azure sky, billowy clouds and peaceful lake, on first glance, presents a lovely but unremarkable scene. However, the viewer needs to contemplate the painting for the 15 minutes any painting deserves for serious consideration. Like magic, the well-defined horse floats away from the muted background.