Enfilade

George Stubbs, Scrub, a Bay Horse Belonging to the Marquess of Rockingham, ca. 1762 (Private Collection).

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On view this spring at the National Gallery:

Stubbs: Portrait of a Horse

National Gallery, London, 12 March — 31 May 2026

Step into the world of George Stubbs, the visionary British painter, and marvel at his monumental portrait of a rearing racehorse, Scrub.

In the 1750s, Stubbs spent eighteen months in a remote barn in Horkstow, Lincolnshire. Hidden away, he devoted his time to studying and drawing the anatomy of horses. What resulted was the most thorough study on the subject for almost a hundred years. Incredibly, Stubbs’s pictures of horses are still some of the most accurate ever painted, all while capturing their unique characters.

In this exhibition, viewers will meet one of these horses, Scrub, painted around 1762. Scrub rears in a landscape backdrop—notably without a rider. In a nearby room hangs another monumental horse painting by Stubbs, a depiction of Scrub’s now famous contemporary, Whistlejacket. Painted around the same time, these would be the first life-size portraits to depict horses without a rider in British history. The two paintings changed the spirit of equine art forever. Stubbs: Portrait of a Horse focuses on the creation of this portrait of Scrub, while presenting other paintings and drawings by the artist. Join us for a closer look at this groundbreaking work.