Freeman, the Earl of Clarendon's gamekeeper, with a dying doe and hound

Freeman, the Earl of Clarendon's Gamekeeper, with a Dying Doe and Hound, painted around 1800, is one of Stubbs's last paintings. The aged gamekeeper with his dying quarry creates an unusually elegiac mood for Stubbs, whose work typically celebrates the vigor of horses and the pleasure of sport. 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...

The late painting maintains Stubbs's characteristic precision while achieving a more atmospheric quality than his earlier, crisper works. The dying doe and the gamekeeper's weary posture create a contemplative mood unusual in sporting art.