GEORGE STUBBS, R.A. 1 97 



this time Stubbs had established his head-quarters 

 in London, his address being 24, Somerset Street, 

 Portman Square. He had evidently been resident 

 in London for some time, as 1760 seems to have 

 been about the date of his appointment to the 

 Treasurership of the first (Incorporated) Society 

 of Artists, which was founded in 1859. He became 

 President of this Society the year before its 

 collapse, an event which occurred in 1774, and 

 which seems to have been due to the change in 

 its methods which followed the granting of a 

 Royal charter of incorporation. Stubbs sent fifty 

 pictures altogether to the Society's annual exhibi- 

 tions ; some of his finest lion and tiger pictures 

 were first publicly shown in the Somerset Street 

 Rooms, where the exhibitions were held in 1764 

 and afterwards. 



In 1 77 1, Cosway, the miniature painter, urged 

 Stubbs to make some experiments in enamel paint- 

 ing. Great difficulties had to be surmounted. Two 

 years were spent in chemical study and experiment 

 before colours which would retain their brilliance 

 throughout the process of firing were discovered, 

 and when the secret of making the colours had 

 been solved, three years more elapsed before suitable 

 earthenware plates were produced. These plates 

 were eventually made by the famous firm of 

 Wedgewood in 1778; the business of preparing 



