Hand-painted in oil
About this Artwork
A carriage picture, which is a portrait of a vehicle
A phaeton was a light, high, open carriage built for being driven fast by its owner rather than by a coachman. A picture of one is a hybrid: part draught subject, because the horses are in harness and pulling, and part luxury portrait, because the vehicle was a possession to be shown. The title attaches the phaeton to the Prince of Wales, which puts this at the expensive end of the category, and the record adds group portraiture to the categories, so people are in the scene.
What the record holds
The catalogue gives 1793 as the date of creation and the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, London, as the location. No dimensions are recorded for this work. Romanticism is the style term and British the nationality attached to the painter. A landscape heading accompanies Animal Art > Horse, and the measured colour family of the image is neutral.
Harness work, not riding work
It is worth being exact about the function. These animals are not carrying anyone. They are pulling, in a harness arrangement designed for speed and appearance, and the physical demand on them is different from that on a hunter or a charger. This register separates the two for that reason.
Sources
8 references- Stubbs, George Townley — Getty ULAN
English engraver, 1756-1815
- George Stubbs — Wikipedia
George Stubbs (25 August 1724 – 10 July 1806) was an English painter, best known for his paintings of horses. Self-trained, Stubbs learnt his skills independently from other great artists of the 18th century such as Joshua Reynolds and Thom
- Stubbs, George — Getty ULAN
English painter, 1724-1806
- The Prince of Wales's Phaeton — Wikidata
description: painting by George Stubbs; inception: 1793-01-01; dimensions: 102 × 128.1 cm; collection: Royal Collection
- royalcollection.org.uk — record for "The Prince of Wales's Phaeton"
Primary source record for this work (royalcollection.org.uk).
- The Prince of Wales's Phaeton — Wikipedia
The Prince of Wales's Phaeton is a 1793 oil painting by the British artist George Stubbs. It depicts a phaeton, a fashionable racing carriage belonging to the Prince of Wales and also features the prince's coachman Samuel Thomas in livery w
- George Stubbs - The Prince of Wales's Phaeton - Google Art Project — Wikimedia Commons
High-resolution image of the work, hosted on Wikimedia Commons.
- The Prince of Wales's Phaeton — Europeana (Royal Collection Trust)
provider: Royal Collection Trust; country: Europe; year: 1793
