194 ANIMAL PAINTERS 



York, where he studied anatomy with success, 

 practised fencing, and learned French while still 

 working at his easel. At York he made his first 

 serious essay as an engraver. Dr. John Burton 

 asked him to furnish illustrations for An Essay 

 towards a Complete Neiv System of Midivifety. 

 The illustrations required special technical study, 

 but Stubbs executed them so much to Dr. Burton's 

 satisfaction that he was asked to engrave them. 

 Engraving was an art to which he was an absolute 

 stranger ; but among his Leeds acquaintance was 

 a house-painter who practised engraving in a small 

 way. From this instructor he soon acquired the 

 little it was possible to learn, and eventually 

 engraved the series of eighteen drawings on 

 copper. 



In 1754 Stubbs left York, and, after paying his 

 mother a visit, embarked for Italy. His object 

 was mainly, according to his own account, to 

 decide if Nature were superior to art, Greek or 

 Roman, ancient or modern. He spent some little 

 time in Rome, and having made up his mind on 

 the point, lost no time in sailing for home. On 

 his journey back he made the acquaintance of a 

 fellow-traveller who invited him to visit Ceuta ; 

 and while there he witnessed the attack of a lion 

 on a horse, an incident which furnished him with 

 subjects for three of his most striking pictures. 



