Stubbs, 'Horse Attacked by Lion', 1762

 

My eye is drawn to the eye of the horse. Stubbs has humanised the animal, creating an expression of desperate terror with the white of his eye emphasised by the white diamond in the forehead and the deep shadow between. He has also positioned the horse and lion’s heads locked together, making a direct comparison between their teeth, but also their eyes: the lion looks up almost impassively, as if what is a matter of life or death for the horse is of little consequence to him. In fact, Stubbs himself actually witnessed a horse being attacked by a lion during his visit to Africa, and this haunted him and the subsequent paintings he created. The drama and raw brutality are very different from the majority of his other images of horses.

If it was not for the background perspective in the painting, it would seem like a very two-dimensional picture. There is no foreshortening and the horse and lion are depicted in a very flat manner, almost like a relief frieze, which brings them very close to the viewer and concentrates the movement inwards, suggesting there is no escape. However Stubbs incorporates nature into the painting too, to create dimension to the work. The painting recedes from the horse and lion, into the middle ground represented by the first trees and finally the background shown by the lone tree to the right of the canvas, and the suggested landscape beyond.

Stubbs has drawn on Romantic themes and depicted the power of animals and the natural world – the horse seems to be beginning to buckle and fall under the weight of the lion, the veins on its hind legs bulging and straining as the adrenaline pumps through the body. You get the sense of its great power through its muscular neck and body, even though you sense the futility. The lion’s grip on the horse in painting seems firm, almost wrapped around the horse entirely.

The dramatic Romanticism is also felt in the way Stubbs depicts movement. There seems to be some sort of wind that perhaps the viewer will only really feel if they step into the painting. This is shown by the way the horse’s mane is flying out to the side, whilst in the background, it also looks like the trees are being blown and perhaps even a storm is brewing, hence the dark clouds which every time you take another glance at the painting seem to be moving further and further over the pocket of blue sky. The colours used also link to this, with the whole painting having quite a dark feel to it, apart from the horse. Perhaps, through the use of light and shade on the horse, the artist is trying to evoke some sympathy for the horse as it is taking down by the enemy that is the lion in the painting, which is shrouded in darkness. It is tempting to see some kind of symbolism with the more elegant, civilised animal being attacked by the wild beast.