© National Gallery
Stubbs: Portrait of a Horse
12 March 2026 — 31 May 2026
On NowA focused show on Stubbs’s “Scrub,” with paintings and works on paper showing how his anatomical studies reshaped equine portraiture in 18th-century British art.
From National Gallery
A monumental painting of a rearing horse will go on display this spring, in a new National Gallery exhibition devoted to George Stubbs (1724–1806). The only life-size horse portrait by Stubbs still in a private collection, and only once before seen on public display, 'Scrub, a bay horse belonging to the Marquess of Rockingham' (about 1762) will be joined in the exhibition by other paintings and works on paper by the artist....
Read more at National Gallery →Critic Reviews
The Guardian
Jonathan Jones
This magnificent nag deserves a longer canter
"George Stubbs is a true British great who deserves as many exhibitions as Constable and Turner, and many more than Blake – but he still gets dismissed as a “sporting artist” or seen as a stooge of the aristocracy, his radical vision going above our heads, and the best the National Gallery can afford him is one room. I loved everything in it. But he deserves so much more and we do too, for this artist could change the world if we all saw with his eyes."
Read full review →The Times
Laura Freeman
this artist was no one-trick pony
"A display case of Stubbs’s anatomical drawings are ghostly and strange. Here are spectral stallions, every, nerve, tendon and sinew turned inside out. More of these, please, and less of the tidy parade-ground pictures on the opposite wall."
Read full review →About the Artist
George Stubbs
British · 1724–1806
George Stubbs (1724–1806) was a British painter and printmaker celebrated for anatomically precise horse paintings and pioneering animal portraiture in 18th-century Britain.
Visit
Trafalgar Square, London·View on artmap
Sunday10am–6pm
Monday10am–6pm
Tuesday10am–6pm
Wednesday10am–6pm
Thursday10am–6pm
Friday10am–9pm
Saturday ·10am–6pm
Related Exhibitions
© National Gallery
Stubbs: Portrait of a Horse
12 March 2026 — 31 May 2026
On NowA focused show on Stubbs’s “Scrub,” with paintings and works on paper showing how his anatomical studies reshaped equine portraiture in 18th-century British art.
From National Gallery
A monumental painting of a rearing horse will go on display this spring, in a new National Gallery exhibition devoted to George Stubbs (1724–1806). The only life-size horse portrait by Stubbs still in a private collection, and only once before seen on public display, 'Scrub, a bay horse belonging to the Marquess of Rockingham' (about 1762) will be joined in the exhibition by other paintings and works on paper by the artist....
Read more at National Gallery →Critic Reviews
The Guardian
Jonathan Jones
This magnificent nag deserves a longer canter
"George Stubbs is a true British great who deserves as many exhibitions as Constable and Turner, and many more than Blake – but he still gets dismissed as a “sporting artist” or seen as a stooge of the aristocracy, his radical vision going above our heads, and the best the National Gallery can afford him is one room. I loved everything in it. But he deserves so much more and we do too, for this artist could change the world if we all saw with his eyes."
Read full review →The Times
Laura Freeman
this artist was no one-trick pony
"A display case of Stubbs’s anatomical drawings are ghostly and strange. Here are spectral stallions, every, nerve, tendon and sinew turned inside out. More of these, please, and less of the tidy parade-ground pictures on the opposite wall."
Read full review →About the Artist
George Stubbs
British · 1724–1806
George Stubbs (1724–1806) was a British painter and printmaker celebrated for anatomically precise horse paintings and pioneering animal portraiture in 18th-century Britain.
Visit
Trafalgar Square, London·View on artmap
Sunday10am–6pm
Monday10am–6pm
Tuesday10am–6pm
Wednesday10am–6pm
Thursday10am–6pm
Friday10am–9pm
Saturday ·10am–6pm