The Royal Collection holds an important group of paintings by George Stubbs; all of them were acquired by George IV when Prince of Wales and all of them (with the exception of OM 1115, 400512) were sent in 1822 from Carlton House to the King’s Lodge (later Royal Lodge) in Windsor Great Park, presumably as an appropriate setting for sporting paintings.

This is the earliest painting by Stubbs in the collection and was acquired by George IV in 1810. It depicts a bay horse standing at full length in profile to the right in a grassy landscape before a lake, beside which a seated shepherd and a standing shepherdess attend a flock of sheep beside a tree; a castle on a bank above the lake on the left.

It is in fact the work of three painters – Stubbs, Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-89) and Francois Boucher (1703-70). This joint authorship seems at first so incongruous that only strong documentary and visual evidence could possibly sustain it. A label on the back of the canvas states that it was given to M. Monet by Lord Bolinbroke in 1766; that the horse was by Stubbs, the landscape by Vernet and the figures by Boucher. These names are repeated in the Carlton House inventory. Stubbs executed several horses with empty backgrounds (including the famous Whistlejacket in the National Gallery); such an canvas could very easily have been taken to distinguished French studios for completion.

For more information on the uniqueness, or otherwise, of the manner of this picture's production by multiple painters, and the circumstances of its creation, see David Pullins, “Stubbs, Vernet & Boucher Share a Canvas: Workshops, Authorship & the Status of Painting”, Journal 18, Issue 1 (Spring 2016).