Otho, with John Larkin up

Otho with John Larkin Up from 1768 by George Stubbs depicts a racehorse with its jockey, documenting the partnership between horse and rider that was central to racing success. Such racing portraits were prized by owners as records of their sporting achievements. Stubbs painted primarily in oil on canvas and board, achieving a distinctive cool clarity through a careful layered technique built over a white ground. His seven years of dissecting horses in a remote Lincolnshire farmhouse gave his...

The horse and jockey are rendered with Stubbs's precise observation, the proportional relationship between rider and mount carefully calibrated.