Dungannon with a Lamb

Painted in 1793, 'Dungannon with a Lamb' illustrates Stubbs's ability to introduce emotional register into equine portraiture through the unexpected juxtaposition of a powerful thoroughbred and a small, vulnerable lamb. Dungannon was a celebrated racehorse, winner of multiple classic races in the 1780s — he took the St Leger in 1786 — making this a late-career revisit to a horse whose fame had already been established. The pairing with a lamb carries symbolic overtones of power and gentleness, the horse's enormous physical presence rendered benign by the lamb's placid company. Such pairings were not uncommon in pastoral tradition, but Stubbs grounds the image in observed animal behaviour — thoroughbreds kept with companion animals, often sheep or goats, for calming purposes — rather than pure allegory. The work was painted when Dungannon was past his racing prime, a kind of retirement portrait.

Oil on canvas. The composition contrasts scale dramatically: Dungannon's massive bay form towers over the small white lamb, yet both are given equal care in rendering. Stubbs uses the lamb's white coat as a compositional highlight in the lower half of the canvas, balancing the sky above the horse. The bay coat is modelled in warm copper-brown tones with cooler shadow glazes.