Lion and Lioness

Lion and Lioness from 1771 by George Stubbs depicts the great cats with the same anatomical study he applied to horses. Stubbs's lion paintings, based on observations at menageries, show wild predators with unprecedented naturalistic accuracy. Stubbs's oil technique was grounded in exhaustive anatomical study—he spent eighteen months dissecting horses at a Lincolnshire farmhouse before painting the plates for his Anatomy of the Horse (1766)—producing an exactitude of musculature and bone...

The paired lions are rendered with anatomical precision, Stubbs capturing the muscular power and distinctive features of the great cats.