Horse Devoured by a Lion

Horse Devoured by a Lion from 1763 by George Stubbs is one of the most dramatic works in his lion-and-horse series. The subject, inspired by a classical marble, explored the primal theme of predator and prey that connected Stubbs's work to the Romantic fascination with nature's violence. Stubbs's equine paintings combine the anatomical precision gained from his seven-year dissection project — published as The Anatomy of the Horse in 1766 — with compositional elegance informed by classical scu...

The savage attack is rendered with anatomical precision in both animals, the violence depicted with scientific accuracy that heightens rather than diminishes the emotional impact.