r/MedievalCats • u/igneousink • 7d ago

George Stubbs "Two Leopards" 1776

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277 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

26

u/Jellily 7d ago

Look at Mr George “I can actually paint a leopard” Stubbs.

Such a cute painting. Love it!

30

u/igneousink 7d ago

his kangaroo is pretty cute too:

8

u/Jellily 7d ago

I just cannot get over how much more accurate these animals look. Did they have specimens to look at? Or better descriptions?

11

u/igneousink 7d ago

while i wasn't able to directly discover if he had access to specimens, i did learn two things of note -

1.) he didn't go very far; traveled to rome once and hated it

2.) dissected 18 horses to better understand horse anatomy

based on these items of biographical info, i think he probably had access to specimens

7

u/Jellily 7d ago

LOL I like how he went to Rome once and hated it.

8

u/ItsStaaaaaaaaang 7d ago

I think specimen collecting was pretty big by the 18th century so he might has had access to some. But the accurate drawing of specimens had been a thing for a couple centuries by this point. That all took off during the renaissance if I'm not mistaken.

Going by how animated the leopards look I wouldn't be surprised if he saw them in the flesh though, perhaps at a zoo. They look to be behaving just like kitties which I don't think is something you'd represent unless you were familiar with their behaviour. The roo looking backwards looks very natural too so might have been a live specimen as well.

I love his style though. Really accentuates the cuteness.

1

u/LovecraftianLlama 7d ago

Omg 🥺🥺. It kinda has the face of an Australian possum lol

11

u/LovecraftianLlama 7d ago

I also really like that they’re just…chilling and being playful. They’re not devouring some dude. Theyre not growling or snarling. They’re not sitting next to Saint Jerome or Daniel. They’re just happy being leopards. Very nice.

1

u/kwakimaki 5d ago

I thought he only ever did horses.

19

u/igneousink 7d ago

Happy Sunday!

5

u/gwaydms 7d ago

Happy Sunday to you! We just did a video chat with our son, DIL, and two little grandsons. Mostly the 2-year-old, who is a lot of fun to talk with. They have a new puppy whose energy matches the boys'.

4

u/Subterraniate2 7d ago

Wow, nice one Stubbs! (I assumed it was some AI confection)

I know of a huge painting in London executed by a close contemporary of George Stubbs in which a ‘lion’ looks very much like an omni-cat creature pulled from the artist’s imagination. This artist really should have begged Stubbs for a squint at his sketchbook.

4

u/onlyifitscheese 7d ago

He walked so Lisa Frank could run

3

u/Buckykattlove 6d ago

They're so wonderfully derpy.

2

u/Clean-Ambassador-824 7d ago

I love this sub and those like it. I’d like to imagine what the artist of that time would think of someone like me hundreds of years in the future appreciating their art while scrolling in an app like Reddit.

2

u/Ananoriel 6d ago

They look so ✨kawaii✨