A Grey Horse, 1793 (oil on canvas)

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. In 1793 Thomas Allwood presented a bill to the Prince for £110 16s, for ‘Carving & Gilding eight Picture frames of half length size [40 x 50 inches] for sundry Pictures painted by Mr Stubbs’. This is one of thirteen paintings in the collection of these dimensions (40 x 50 inches), all in identical frames and all dated between 1790 and 1793 (OM 1109-12, 1115-8, 1122-6, 400142, 400106, 400995, 400997, 400512, 400560, 400994, 400587, 400510, 400562, 400943, 405001, 400549). It is not possible to say which were the eight mentioned in Allwood’s bill, and how they might have been grouped; but they all seem to have been conceived loosely as a set. This painting does seem to belong to a pair (OM 1122-3, 400510 and 400562) depicting the same horse, which has been identified as Grey Trentham, a thoroughbred belonging to the Earl of Egremont who raced successfully during the years 1791-4. A grey horse at full-length walking in profile to the left, its right foreleg raised; a landscape with hedgerow rolls gently away into the distance. The artist originally intended a saddle, which he has painted over.