Haycarting

Painted in 1795 and now at the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight, 'Haycarting' belongs to a small but distinctive group of agricultural labour scenes Stubbs produced in the 1790s. Unlike his aristocratic sporting commissions, these rural labourers going about the work of haymaking represent a shift toward the agrarian subject matter that was simultaneously transforming English landscape painting — a shift shaped by enclosure debates, nostalgia for pre-industrial rural life, and the growing influence of pastoral poetry. Stubbs was in his late seventies when he painted this canvas, yet the execution is confident and assured. The Lady Lever Gallery, built by soap magnate Lord Leverhulme to house his collection at Port Sunlight, holds the painting as part of its important holdings of British eighteenth and nineteenth-century art. The workers in 'Haycarting' are treated with dignity: they are not social commentary but participants in a timeless seasonal rhythm.

Oil on canvas. Stubbs organises the composition around the loaded hay wagon at centre, with workers and animals arranged in a loose frieze. The warm yellow-gold of the hay dominates the palette, complemented by the blue sky and green-brown of the surrounding landscape. Horses are given individual characterisation consistent with Stubbs's lifetime practice.