Enfilade

The paperback edition appeared in 2024; the hardback is scheduled for publication in April:

George Stubbs, The Anatomy of the Horse (London: Pallas Athene, 2024), 76 pages, ISBN: 978-1843682479 (paperback) / ISBN: 978-1843682486 (hardback), $30. With essays by Constance-Anne Parker and Oliver Kase.

George Stubbs (1724–1806) was one of the most original artists Britain has produced, and it is easy to forget how much his success was based on rigorous scientific observation. In 1756 he rented a farmhouse where he erected scaffolding to hold the cadavers of horses as he dissected and drew. After eighteen months, Stubbs produced the drawings for The Anatomy of the Horse, which he later etched. The result was sensational. Scientists from all over Europe sent their congratulations, amazed at the perfection of the work. The Anatomy remained a textbook for artists and scientists for over a century, and its strange, spare beauty continues to fascinate. This edition is taken from the 1853 printing, the last to use Stubbs’s original plates. The artist’s full commentary is included for the veterinarially minded. Essays by Constance-Anne Parker and Oliver Kase place Stubbs’s work in the context of his life and times, and of 18th-century medical science.

Constance-Anne Parker (1921–2016), a distinguished sculptor and painter, was the Librarian and Archivist of the Royal Academy, where she also lectured. She was the author of Mr. Stubbs, the Horse Painter (1971) and George Stubbs: Art, Animals, and Anatomy (1984).

Oliver Kase is Director of Collections at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich where he oversees the Max Beckmann Archive. In 2011–12 he was assistant curator for The Art of Enlightenment, a major international exhibition organized between Germany and China. He lectures at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and is the author of numerous publications on the art of the 18th to 21st centuries.