274 



to the last edition, was once informed by a French gentleman, whom he 

 has not had the opportunity of seeing since, that the Arabian had actu- 

 ally drawn a cart in the streets of Paris. 



At the above page (108) 1 noticed a common objection to the works of 

 our late celebrated horse painter Stubbs, whose superior genius and pro- 

 fessional skill, have been acknowledged bj^ all ]<]urope, and it is, per- 

 haps, that peculiar line of painting alone, in which the artists of this 

 country can pretend to any superior claims. It is probable, tliere is not 

 in England, so bad a painter as I am a judge of painting; and the sum 

 total of my connoisseurship amounts to this : In viewing a picture, I 

 fancy, in the first place, I can discover whether nature has been well 

 copied, and in the next, whether there be any very great breach of pro- 

 portions. The reader will thus at once, see the extent of my right to 

 call in question the justness of the present prevailing opinions, so inimi- 

 cal to the reputation of Stubbs. These opinions seem to be spread- 

 ing beyond the professional line, and to have become, in a cer- 

 tain degree, fashionable. It has been lately discovered, that Stubbs was 

 merely an anatomist, without any genius as a painter; that his Horses 

 are all alike, and that after you have looked over his portraits of Marske, 

 Protector, Shark, Gimcrack, and others, all that you shall have seen, is 

 the anatomical figure of a Horse, by Stubbs, under different names. 

 I have been told particularly, that his Shark is quite a different thing 

 to the real Horse, which my informant saw, a fine, gallant, gay, and 

 airy stallion. Shark might appear so in the company of a mare, but 

 whenever I saw him, and I saw him several times, he appeared precisely 

 in that sober attitude and character, in which our great painter drew 

 him; nor can I conceive a more correct, or more natural likeness, of 

 this favourite Racer, to ride which a sweat, how freely would I have 

 journeyed several hundred miles. In my Treatise on Horses, Vol.2, 

 page 28, 1 gave a specimen of the accuracy of a criticism on a picture 

 of Bulls fighting, exhibited by Stubbs. It was a most correct copy 

 of nature, as every one knew, who had been accustomed to see bulls 

 fight; but the critics found it tame, and did not stay to reflect, that 

 it was no fault of the painter, if bulls were not in the habit of fighting 

 with all the animation and fierceness of tygers or stallions. We have 



here 



