Lion and Lione

Lion and Lioness from 1770 by George Stubbs is another study of the great cats, demonstrating his sustained interest in wild animal anatomy. These lion paintings were among his most dramatically powerful works. 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 structure unmatched in equestrian art.

The pair of lions is depicted with anatomical precision, their powerful bodies rendered with the same careful study Stubbs brought to his equine subjects.