John Gascoigne (d. 1812) with a Bay Horse

John Gascoigne with a Bay Horse from 1791 by George Stubbs is a late equestrian portrait combining a human sitter with his horse in the format that defined Stubbs's commercial career. The horse-and-owner composition—the man either mounted or standing beside his animal—was his most frequent and commercially important arrangement, allowing clients to commemorate both themselves and their valued animals in a single painting. By 1791 Stubbs was seventy-seven years old, but the anatomical precision of his equine rendering remained undiminished. John Gascoigne, a royal equerry, was part of the Prince of Wales's household circle that provided Stubbs with sustained patronage in his final decade. The work is held at the Royal Collection and demonstrates that his late technique retained the authority that had made his reputation forty years earlier.

The rider and horse are rendered with Stubbs's precise observation, the relationship between human and animal captured with characteristic anatomical accuracy.