Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/122

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Stubbs
116
Stubbs

himself, were also popular. But, speaking of him as an artist, he was greatest as a painter of animals, and greatest of all as a realistic painter of horses. He was probably the first painter who thoroughly mastered their anatomy, and he drew them with a lifelike accuracy of form and movement that has never been surpassed.

A great many, probably the majority, of Stubbs's most important works have not changed hands since they were painted. The king possesses fifteen, four formerly in the stud house of Hampton Court Palace (one of which contains a portrait of the Prince of Wales on horseback), and eleven at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor. The Earl of Rosebery has eleven, including a portrait of Warren Hastings with his favourite arab, and another of Eclipse. The Duke of Westminster has six, the Earl of Macclesfield eight, the Duke of Portland nine. Earl Fitzwilliam possesses six, including ‘Whistle-jacket’ (life-size on a bare canvas), ‘Horse attacked by a Lion,’ and ‘Stag attacked by a Lion,’ both very large pictures. Other possessors were Mr. R. N. Sutton Nelthorpe and Mr. Louis Huth. The king of Bavaria has the ‘Spanish Pointer,’ three times engraved, and the Duke of Richmond has no less than three, which are all remarkable for their size (ten feet eight inches by twelve feet six inches). But the largest collection of Stubbs's works belongs to Sir Walter Gilbey, who has no less than thirty-four (in oils and enamel) of famous horses and other subjects, including a ‘Zebra,’ Warren Hastings (enamel), and the large picture of Hercules capturing the Cretan bull, which was painted, it is said, to show the academicians that he had as consummate a knowledge of the human form as of that of a horse. Stubbs presented to the Liverpool Society for the Encouragement of Arts a model of a horse executed by himself, for which they awarded him a gold medal. There is a small but good example of Stubbs in the National Gallery (a white horse and a man in a landscape), and at South Kensington Museum is a large picture of a lion and lioness, and another of a goose with outstretched wings. There are several portraits of Stubbs: one by Thomas Chubbard when he was young, and others by Ozias Humphrey, Peter Falconet, Thomas Orde (Baron Bolton), and Elias Martin (exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1790 as ‘An Artist and a Horse’). He also painted a portrait of himself on a white hunter, which was sold at the sale of his property after his death.

[Life of George Stubbs, R.A., by Sir Walter Gilbey (privately printed); Memoir by Joseph Mayer; Sporting Mag. January 1894 and November 1810; Landseer's Carnivora; Monthly Review, 1767; Meteyard's Life of Josiah Wedgwood; Seguier's Dict.; Redgrave's Dict.; Redgraves' Century; Pilkington's Dict.; Bryan's Dict. ed. Armstrong; Sandby's Hist. of the Royal Academy; The Works of James Barry.]

STUBBS, GEORGE TOWNELEY (1756–1815), engraver, born in 1756, the son of George Stubbs [q. v.], engraved many of his father's pictures, and a few plates after other painters, in mezzotint and in the dot manner. Between 1771 and 1782 he exhibited five times at the Incorporated Society of Artists (mezzotints and stained drawings), and once at the Royal Academy. He died in 1815.

[Bryan's Dict. ed. Armstrong; Redgrave's Dict.; Graves's (Algernon) Dict.; Gilbey's Life of George Stubbs, R.A. (privately printed).]

STUBBS, STUBBES, or STUBBE, HENRY (1632–1676), physician and author, was born at Partney, Lincolnshire, on 28 Feb. 1631–2, being son of Henry Stubbs or Stubbe (1606?–1678) [q. v.] At the commencement of the civil war in Ireland in 1641 his mother fled with him to Liverpool, whence she proceeded to London on foot. She maintained herself by her needle, and sent her son to Westminster school. There he frequently obtained pecuniary relief from his schoolfellows as a remuneration for writing their exercises. Busby, the headmaster, was struck by his talents, and introduced him to Sir Henry Vane (1612–1662) [q. v.], who relieved his immediate wants and ever afterwards remained his steady friend.

Stubbe matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, 13 March 1650–51. While at the university his reputation for learning increased daily, and he used to discourse fluently in Greek in the public schools. After proceeding B.A. 4 July 1653, he went to Scotland and served in the parliamentary army till 1655. He commenced M.A. 13 Dec. 1656, and in 1657 he was appointed second keeper of the Bodleian Library (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ii. 175, 193). About this time he was engaged in writing against the clergy and the universities. For a ‘pestilent book’ of this sort, Dr. Edward Reynolds, dean of Christ Church [q. v.], ejected him from his student's place and removed him from the library towards the end of 1659. The works which he published before the Restoration were directed against monarchy, ministers, universities, churches, and everything that was dear to the royalists; yet it is said he wrote them out of gratitude to his patron, Sir Henry Vane, rather than from principle or attachment to a party; for he gained nothing by