Painting Guides

Read paintings through their subjects, documented identities and collection records. Each guide links to the sources used and to relevant parts of the catalogue.

• George Stubbs and the Horse as a Subject

  Read Whistlejacket as a portrait of an individual horse, and distinguish the painting from Stubbs’s documented anatomical studies.

• Degas and Racehorses: Before the Start

  Compare an early Degas race scene at Harvard with a later pastel at the Met, tracing documented composition and borrowed poses.

• How Painters Represent Horse Movement

  Compare movement in a royal equestrian portrait, a Degas race scene and Muybridge’s photographs without confusing pose with recorded motion.