The Death of the Hare - YCBA Collections Search

unknown artist, eighteenth century, The Death of the Hare, between 1760 and 1770

Creator:: unknown artist eighteenth century
Formerly George Stubbs, 1724–1806
Title:: The Death of the Hare
Date:: between 1760 and 1770
Medium:: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:: 60 x 99 inches (152.4 x 251.5 cm)
Credit Line:: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:: Public Domain
Accession Number:: B1981.25.267
Classification:: Paintings
Collection:: Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:: B1981.25.267FR
Subject Terms:: boy | death | dogs (animals) | hare | honeysuckle | horses (animals) | lake | landscape | men | mountains | portrait | rabbit | reins | river | sporting art
Access:: Not on view
Link:: https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:762
Export:: XML
IIIF Manifest:: JSON

Hunting hares with beagles was a popular pastime among landed gentry in the eighteenth century—far more so than fox hunting, until well into the nineteenth century. Hare hunting reinforced the status of leisured gentlemen and women and their control of property. Beagles were trained never to touch a hare once cornered; the hare might then be spared or slain. Despite the title of this painting, this hare is not dead. Caught between life and death, the exhausted hare stares out waiting for its fate. The attribution of this impressive picture is uncertain, but it has been tentatively associated with the Dublin-based artist Robert Healy, who “delineated [horses] so admirably that he got plenty of employment from those who had favorite hunters, mares or ladies palfreys.”

Gallery label for Love, Life, Death, and Desire: An Installation of the Center's Collections (Yale Center for British Art, 2020-11-01 – 2021-02-28)

Love, Life, Death, and Desire: An Installation of the Center's Collections (Yale Center for British Art, 2020-10-01 - 2021-02-28) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

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]

Robert Colls, This sporting life : sport and liberty in England, 1760-1960, Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K., 2020, p. 370, GV706.35 .C65 2020 (LC) YCBA [ORBIS]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 36-37, N590.2 A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Stephen Deuchar, Noble exercise : the sporting ideal in eighteenth-century British art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1982, p. 15; p. 42, no. 12, ND1388 G7 D48+ (YCBA) [YCBA]

Judy Egerton, British Sporting and Animal Paintings 1655-1867 : A Catalogue : The Paul Mellon Collection, , Tate Publishing, London, 1978, pp. 103-106, no. 101, pl. 37, ND1383 G7 B75 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Venetia Morrison, The art of George Stubbs, Wellfleet Press, Seacaucus, N.J., 1989, p. 47, NJ18 St915 M67 1989+ (YCBA) [YCBA]

The Yale Center for British Art, An Anniversary Celebration of Paul Mellon's Great Legacy , Apollo, April 2007, p. 63, fig. 3, 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. 62, 63, fig. 3, N1 A54 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

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