Foxhound

Foxhound from 1760 by George Stubbs demonstrates the breadth of his animal expertise at a moment when he was first attracting attention as an equine specialist. The foxhound was essential to the field sports culture of the English gentry, and commissioning portraits of particularly valued individual dogs was common among hunting households. Stubbs applied the same observational rigor to canine anatomy that he brought to horses, producing dog portraits of unusual accuracy and dignity. His foxhound paintings treat the individual animal as a subject worthy of the same attention as a thoroughbred racehorse, rendering breed characteristics—the hound's conformation, coat markings, muscular build—with the precision of a naturalist. The work is held at the Yale Center for British Art.

The foxhound is rendered with the same anatomical precision Stubbs brought to his horse studies, every detail of musculature and posture observed from direct study.