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Study of frightened horses

Maker

(artist)
1733-1807

Formerly attributed to
(artist)
1769-1859

Title

Date of Production

1700 - 1799

Medium

graphite, pen and brown ink, watercolour on laid paper, laid down on Japanese tissue

Dimensions

Height: 19.2 cm
Width: 32 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.2712

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

Like George Stubbs in his painting, 'Horse Frightened by a Lion' (1770), at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Gilpin here engages with the fashionable theory of the Sublime. Both artists use horses to exploit the sense of fear and danger at the heart of this aesthetic emotion. Gilpin dramatizes the subject, placing a trio of horses against a stormy backdrop, as if on stage. Rapid penstrokes and exaggerated poses heighten the drama.

Notes

A former mount inscription identified this as 'Macbeth's horses' but the only known painting by Gilpin of Macbeth 'The Weird Sisters' (formerly New York priv. coll.) doesn't have horses, but rather the witch riding a skeleton horse.

Provenance

Squire Gallery (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952) in 1935; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Captured on Paper, Animals in the Prints and Drawings Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 20/06/2002-11/08/2002

L'Aquarelle Romantique en France et en Angleterre, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Calais, 29/07/1961-17/09/1961

Drawings from the Witt Collection at the Courtauld Institute of Art, St James's Square, London; York City Art Gallery; Peterborough Art Gallery, 1953 ...More

Some British Drawings from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1948

A Loan exhibition of English and French paintings and drawings, Wigan Grammar School, 06/04/1938-30/04/1938

James Ward Exhibition, Squire Gallery, London, 1935 ...Less

Literature

L'Aquarelle Romantique en France et en Angleterre, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Calais, 1961
cat. no. 66
ill.

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 23

Drawings from the Witt Collection at the Courtauld Institute of Art, St James's Square, London, York City Art Gallery and Peterborough Art Gallery, 1953
cat. no. 14 ...More

Some British Drawings from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1948
no. 82
pl. VIII ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: centre: lion rampant with sword and soldier with spear above a bell: "PRO PATRIA / JUBB" [tracing in object file. The top half is Irish Pro Patria watermark c. 1760 by the Nun family, Milmount Mill, Rockbrook, County Dublin (http://baph.org.uk/watermarks.html). Jubb's mill in Ewell, Surrey closed in 1794.]

Inscription: Verso (hidden under Japanese tissue): upper left, graphite: "P"; upper right corner, graphite: "ch."; upper right, graphite: "F". Mount (removed, now missing, attested to in Modes): graphite: "Macbeth's horses / J. Ward"; pen and ink: "M. 1823-9".

Collector's mark: none.

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