Self-Portrait

Stubbs's Self-Portrait of 1759 shows the artist at the beginning of his public career in London, painted in the year before he undertook the systematic anatomical dissections of horses that would produce his Anatomy of the Horse (1766)—the foundational scientific work of his career and the basis of his exceptional reputation for equine accuracy. The self-portrait documents a painter of thirty-five who was already developing the anatomical expertise that would distinguish him from all his contemporaries, and its existence demonstrates that he understood himself as a significant artist deserving permanent visual documentation. The work's direct observation and honest characterization reflect the same empirical approach to natural fact that made his animal paintings scientifically as well as artistically distinguished.

The self-portrait presents the artist with directness and quiet authority. Stubbs's precise, controlled technique creates a likeness that emphasizes intellectual seriousness rather than artistic flamboyance.