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Creator:
George Stubbs, 1724–1806
Title:
Freeman, the Earl of Clarendon's gamekeeper, with a dying doe and hound
Former Title(s):

A Park Scene at the Grove : Freeman, the Earl of Clarendon's Gamekeeper with a dying doe and hound

Freeman, Keeper of the Earl of Clarendon

A park scene at the Grove, near Watford, Herts, the seat of the Earl of Clarendon [1800, Royal Academy of Arts, London, exhibition catalogue]

Freeman, Keeper to the Earl of Clarendon
Date:
1800
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
40 x 50 inches (101.6 x 127 cm), Frame: 48 1/2 × 58 1/2 × 3 1/2 inches (123.2 × 148.6 × 8.9 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Signed and dated, lower center: "geo : stubbs pinxit 1800"

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1985.19.5
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B1985.19.5FR
Subject Terms:
costume | dark | deer | dog (animal) | dusk | dying | forest | gamekeeper | hunting | portrait | rifle | sporting art | sportsman
Associated Places:
England | Hertfordshire | United Kingdom | Watford
Access:
Not on view
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:1262
Export:
XML
IIIF Manifest:
JSON

This has been described as George Stubbs’s most enigmatic painting. It depicts Thomas Freeman, the Earl of Clarendon’s gamekeeper, grasping an injured doe and preparing to dispatch it with the small knife he holds in his right hand. The picture is one of contrasts: between life (embodied by the lively staghound) and imminent death (the injured doe); and between light (the trio of bodies in the foreground) and encroaching darkness (the forest background). Freeman, who wears a puzzling expression, looks up, as if staring out at the spectator—as does the doe—perhaps implying a comparison between man and beast. Stubbs was perhaps thinking about his own mortality: he completed this work in the twilight of his life, when he was seventy-six years old.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

An Introduction to George Stubbs (MK Gallery, 2019-10-11 - 2020-01-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

An Introduction to George Stubbs (National Horse Racing Museum, 2019-06-27 - 2019-09-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

George Stubbs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015-03-23 - 2015-11-13) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Vision - Observation and Imagination in British Art (Museum of Fine Arts Ghent, 2007-10-06 - 2008-01-13) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Below Stairs - The Servant (Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 2004-02-27 - 2004-05-31) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Below Stairs - The Servant (National Portrait Gallery, 2003-10-01 - 2004-02-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

' Art on the Line ' : the Royal Academy Exhibitions at Somerset House 1780-1836 (The Courtauld Gallery, 2001-10-17 - 2002-01-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

George Stubbs in the Collection of Paul Mellon: a Memorial Exhibition (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2000-02-14 - 2000-05-15) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

George Stubbs in the Collection of Paul Mellon: a Memorial Exhibition (Yale Center for British Art, 1999-04-30 - 1999-09-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

George Stubbs (1724-1806) Tate Gallery (Yale Center for British Art, 1985-02-13 - 1985-04-07) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

George Stubbs (1724-1806) Tate Gallery (Tate Britain, 1984-10-17 - 1985-01-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Noble Exercise - The Sporting Ideal in Eighteenth-Century British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-07-14 - 1982-09-19) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Painting in England 1700-1850 - From The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (Yale University Art Gallery, 1965-04-15 - 1965-06-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Art on the line : the Royal Academy exhibitions at Somerset House, 1780-1836 : [catalogue of works], , The Courtauld Gallery, London, 2001, no. 63, V 0909 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Robin Blake, George Stubbs and the wide creation, animals, people and places in the life of George Stubbs, 1724-1806 , Chatto & Windus, London : Chatto & Windus, 2005, 2005, p. 288, cl. pl. 17, NJ18.St915 B53 2005 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Colin Campbell, Thomas Villiers, 2nd Earl of Clarendon, as a patron of George Stubbs, Burlington Magazine, 158, August 2016, cover, pp 619-20, 626 [no.A 2], cover, fig. 22, N1 B87 (LC) OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Christie, Manson & Woods, Christie's sale catalogue : Catalogue of pictures of Old Masters and Modern Pictures : 13 February 1920, Christie's, London, February 13, 1920, p. 13, Lot 96, Fiche B51 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Country pursuits: British, American, and French sporting art from the Mellon collections in the Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts, , Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Charlottesville, 2007, p. 34, fig. 29, ND1383 G7 V57 2007 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, George Stubbs in the collection of Paul Mellon : A memorial exhibition, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1999, p. 63, no. 40, NJ18 St915 G54 1999 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Stephen Deuchar, Noble exercise : the sporting ideal in eighteenth-century British art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1982, pp. 27-8, 47, no. 73, ND1388 G7 D48+ (YCBA) [YCBA]

Diana Donald, Picturing animals in Britain, 1750-1850, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, p. 279, no. 253, N7660 D67 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Judy Egerton, British Sporting and Animal Paintings 1655-1867 : A Catalogue : The Paul Mellon Collection, , Tate Publishing, London, 1978, pp. 99-100, no. 97, pl. 35, ND1383 G7 B75 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Judy Egerton, George Stubbs, 1724-1806, [exhibition] Tate Gallery. , Tate Publishing, London, 1984, p. 180, no. 137, NJ18 St915 E43 (YCBA) + [YCBA]

John Fletcher, Deer in British sporting art, Essays of Friends of British Sporting Art, no. 60, The British Sporting Art Trust, London, 2013, pp. 5,6, fig. 13, N8250 .B571 60 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Frank Partridge & Sons, Ltd., Partridge sale catalogue : Catalogue of fine English sporting pictures : 1959, 1959, p. 10, DealerCat Frank Partridge Inc (YCBA) [YCBA]

Catherine M. Gordon, British paintings Hogarth to Turner, Frederick Warne, London, 1981, p. 62, ND466 G67 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Robert Hoozee, British vision : observation and imagination in British art, 1750-1950, , Mercatorfonds Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels , Ghent, 2007, pp. 17-18, 74-75, no. 5, fig. 5, N6767 B78 2007 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Venetia Morrison, The art of George Stubbs, Wellfleet Press, Seacaucus, N.J., 1989, p. 90, NJ18 St915 M67 1989+ (YCBA) [YCBA]

Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , 1,2, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, p. 173 (v. 1), no. 330, pl. 178, ND466 V57 v.1-2 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Painting in England 1700-1850 from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, The Royal Academy of Arts Winter Exhibition 1964-65., , Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 1964, p. 77 (v.1), no. 272, pl. 57, N5220.M45 R69 1964 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Constance-Anne Parker, Mr. Stubbs, the Horse Painter, J. A. Allen, London, 1971, pp. 192-193, NJ18 St915 +P37 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Partridge catalogue : Catalogue of exhibition of fine English sporting pictures 1959, Frank Partridge & Sons, Ltd., New York, 1959, p. 10, DealerCat Frank Partridge Inc. (YCBA) [YCBA]

Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 1, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ronald Paulson, Emblem and expression, meaning in English art of the eighteenth century , Thames and Hudson, London, 1975, p. 168, fig. 98, NX543 P38 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Royal Academy of Arts, Exhibition Catalogue. 1801. 33d., Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, no. 33, B. McMillan, London, 1801, p. 10, no. 175, N5054 A53 29-49 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Roberta Smith, Horses, Hounds and Men, at Work and at Play, New York Times, August 7, 2015, p. C22, Available online : Proquest .com/nytimes [ORBIS]

David H. Solkin, Art on the Line : the Royal Academy Exhibitions at Somerset House 1780-1836, , Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2001, Foldout No. 58, N5054 A78 2001B (YCBA) [YCBA]

Walter Shaw Sparrow, British sporting artists from Barlow to Herring, Scribner, London New York, 1922, p. 133, ND1385 S6 (YCBA) + [YCBA]

George Stubbs, George Stubbs : 'All Done from Nature', London, p. 102, cat. 46, NJ18.St915 A12 2019 (LC) Oversize [ORBIS]

Basil Taylor, Stubbs, Phaidon, London, 1971, pp. 39, 215, pl. 132, NJ18 St915 +T39 1971B (YCBA) [YCBA]

Basil Taylor, Stubbs, Phaidon, London, 1975, p. 215, pl. 132, NJ18 St915 T39 1975 (YCBA) + [YCBA]

The Yale Center for British Art, An Anniversary Celebration of Paul Mellon's Great Legacy , Apollo, April 2007, p. 67, fig. 6, N5220 M552 A7 OVERSIZE (YCBA) Appeared as April 2007 issue of Apollo;; all of the articles may also be found in bound Apollo Volume [N1 A54 165:2 +] [YCBA]

Angus Trumble, Diversions of the Field, Apollo, v. 165, no. 542, April 2007, pp. 64, 67, no. 6, N1 A54 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Stella A. Walker, Sporting art : England 1700-1900, Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., New York, 1972, no. 38, N8250 W35 (YCBA) + [YCBA]

Giles Waterfield, Below stairs, 400 years of servants' portraits , National Portrait Gallery, London, 2003, p. 156, cat. no. 78, ND1460 D65 W37 2003 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale University Art Gallery, Painting in England, 1700-1850, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon : [exhibition at] Yale University Art Gallery, April 15-June 20, 1965, , vol. 1, W. Clowes and sons, New Haven, 1965, p. 49 (v.1), no. 184, pl. 57, ND466 Y35 (YCBA) [YCBA]


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