Horses in the Stable

The stable is where the animal is not working

A stable picture catalogues the other half of a horse's day. The title places these animals indoors, in the accommodation that a riding or driving establishment was built around, and in that setting the function is simply rest and upkeep: standing in a stall, being fed, being available. It is also the one setting in which the animal holds a pose: a stabled horse stands, and the light is a single problem rather than ten.

What the record holds

The catalogue gives 1874 as the date of creation and a private collection as the location. The dimensions are 33 x 46 cm, a small picture, which is consistent with a study rather than an exhibition work. Impressionism is the style term recorded and French the nationality attached to the painter. The categories are Animal Art and Animal Art > Horse, with no human subject attached. The measured colour families of the image are red and pink.

Two more stable interiors in this register

The same painter is recorded here with further stable subjects dated 1878, each naming a single animal by coat colour. A group of that kind reads as sustained attention to one motif rather than a single commission, though the catalogue record alone cannot establish why they were made.