The Prince of Wales's Phaeton

The Prince of Wales's Phaeton from 1793 by George Stubbs depicts the carriage and horses of the future George IV in a late royal commission that exemplifies Stubbs's sustained relationship with the highest levels of the English sporting aristocracy. The phaeton—a fashionable open four-wheeled carriage—is shown with its matched pair, every detail of harness, coachwork, and equine anatomy rendered with Stubbs's characteristic scientific precision. Stubbs had spent eighteen months in the 1750s dissecting horses at a Lincolnshire farmhouse before producing the plates for his Anatomy of the Horse (1766), the foundational text of equine art that gave his painting an anatomical authority no contemporary could match. By 1793 the artist was in his late sixties but his technique retained its full precision. The work is held at the Royal Collection.

The horses and carriage are rendered with Stubbs's unmatched anatomical precision, each animal's musculature and posture depicted with scientific accuracy.