Bulls Fighting

Bulls Fighting from 1786 by George Stubbs depicts the violent confrontation between two bulls, one of his studies of animal combat that extended his range beyond equestrian specialization to include the wider world of agricultural animals. Stubbs based such works on direct observation, his eye for animal behavior and anatomy allowing him to capture the dynamics of combat with convincing accuracy. The bulls fighting subject connects to the broader Romantic interest in natural violence—the same vein of thought that produced his lion-and-horse series—but here placed in a domestic English farming context rather than a wild or exotic setting. The charging bulls, heads lowered, muscles tensed in confrontation, are depicted with Stubbs's characteristic anatomical precision even in this highly dynamic subject. The work is held at the Yale Center for British Art.

The fighting bulls are depicted with the same anatomical precision Stubbs brought to horses, the violent action captured with dynamic energy and structural accuracy.