Stubbs: Portrait of a Horse review – this magnificent nag deserves a longer canter

Jonathan Jones | The Guardian | 11th March 2026

Why is this George Stubbs show so small, given that he was “as good as Constable?” It consists of just two of his greatest equine portraits, works that may be unsurpassed in the genre of animal portraits. His renown rests not just on anatomical fidelity but also his desire to show an animal’s “soul”. Stubbs was a product of humane Enlightenment thinking. His outlook, speculates the writer, was shaped by growing up amidst “the sight of human oppression in Liverpool, a slaving port.”