Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.621
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
breeches | building | clouds | animal art | sky | landscape | horse (animal) | horse racetracks | jockey | hat | sporting art | riding boots | equestrian | pasture | post
Associated Places:
United Kingdom | England | Newmarket | Suffolk | Europe
Currently On View:
On view at the Yale University Art Gallery
Exhibition History:
YUAG European Galleries (Yale University Art Gallery, 2023-12-01 - 2025-01-15)In a New Light: Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art (Yale University Art Gallery, 2023-03-24 - 2023-12-03)George Stubbs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015-03-23 - 2015-11-13)George Stubbs (Neue Pinakothek - Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, 2012-01-26 - 2012-05-06)An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29)An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Royal Academy of Arts, 2007-10-20 - 2008-01-27)Stubbs & The Horse (Kimbell Art Museum, 2004-11-14 - 2005-02-06)Stubbs & The Horse (The Walters Art Museum, 2005-03-05 - 2005-05-20)Stubbs & The Horse (The National Gallery, London, 2005-06-29 - 2005-09-25)British Galleries in the Hermitage (The State Hermitage Museum, 2002-06-21 - 2002-09-21)George Stubbs in the Collection of Paul Mellon: a Memorial Exhibition (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2000-02-14 - 2000-05-15)George Stubbs in the Collection of Paul Mellon: a Memorial Exhibition (Yale Center for British Art, 1999-04-30 - 1999-09-05)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998-05-01 - 1998-07-05)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Queensland Art Gallery, 1998-07-15 - 1998-09-06)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998-09-16 - 1998-11-15)Stubbs - An Exhibition in Honor of Paul Mellon (National Gallery of Art, 1985-04-11 - 1985-05-04)George Stubbs (1724-1806) Tate Gallery (Tate Britain, 1984-10-17 - 1985-01-06)George Stubbs (1724-1806) Tate Gallery (Yale Center for British Art, 1985-02-13 - 1985-04-07)Noble Exercise - The Sporting Ideal in Eighteenth-Century British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-07-14 - 1982-09-19)
Publications:
Sir Geoffrey Agnew, Yale's 1700 Mellon Pictures, The Times (London), , April 28, 1977, p. 9, Times Digital ArchiveCassandra Albinson, New Acquisitions, Apollo, v. 165, no. 542, April, 2007, p. 41, N1 A54 + (YCBA)John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, pp. 30, 253, no. 24, fig. 3, pl. 24, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)John Baskett, The horse in art, Little Brown, Boston, 1980, p. 99, Folio AN 51 (YCBA)Christie's sale catalogue : Catalogue of Pictures by Old Masters and Ancient and Modern Pictures : 10 December 1943, Christie's, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, December 10, 1943, p. 7, Lot 49, Fiche B51, Fiche# 2945 (YCBA)Christie's sale catalogue: Catalogue of the First Portion of the Important Collection of Sporting Pictures : 20 July 1951, Christie's, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, July 20, 1951, p. 28, Lot 126, Fiche B51, Fiche# 3229 (YCBA)Robert Colls, This sporting life : sport and liberty in England, 1760-1960, Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K., 2020, p. 57, 371, pl. 2.1, GV706.35 .C65 2020 (LC) YCBAMalcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 216-217, N590.2 A83 (YCBA)Malcolm Cormack, George Stubbs in the collection of Paul Mellon : A memorial exhibition, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1999, pp. 10, 25, no. 8, NJ18 St915 G54 1999 (YCBA)Stephen Deuchar, Noble exercise : the sporting ideal in eighteenth-century British art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1982, pp. 31, 44, no. 43, ND1388 G7 D48+ (YCBA)Richard Dorment, Beauty of the Beast, George Stubbs' meticulous paintings of horses made him greatest artist-scientist since Leonardo , Calgary Herald, July 9, 2005, G8, available online (Orbis)Judy Egerton, 'So Good with the Humbler Persons' : Stubbs as Portraitist, Burlington Magazine, vol. 149, October 2007, p. 673, fig. 4, N1 B87 (LC) + (YCBA)Judy Egerton, British Sporting and Animal Paintings 1655-1867 : A Catalogue : The Paul Mellon Collection, , Tate Publishing, London, 1978, pp. 78-9, no. 76A, Colour Pl. 12, ND1383 G7 B75 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Judy Egerton, George Stubbs, 1724-1806, [exhibition] Tate Gallery. , Tate Publishing, London, 1984, p. 87, 88, no. 57, NJ18 St915 E43 (YCBA) +Judy Egerton, George Stubbs, painter : catalogue raisonne, , Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2007, pp. 233-1, no. 72, NJ18 St915 A12 +E44 2007 (YCBA)Michael Jaffe, Stubbs, a self portrait , Burlington Magazine, vol. 127, no. 983, February, 1985, p. 85, N1 B87 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)Julia Marciari-Alexander, This other Eden : Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1998, pp. 3-4, no. 43, fig. 3, ND1314.3 Y36 1998 (YCBA)John McDonald, A Feast of Mellon, Sydney Morning Herald, May 9, 1998, p. 14, Film An Sy25 (SML) Also Available Online (Factiva database)National Gallery of British Sports and Pastimes, list of sports and pastimes : the first 600 selected pictures : there are 3,000 and more paintings, coloured prints, etc., which will be exhibited from time to time. , National Gallery of British Sports and Pastimes, London, 1950, p. 27, no. 111, N8250 L65 (YCBA)Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v.3, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Herbert W Rott, George Stubbs, 1724-1806, science into art , Prestel, Munich ; New York, 2012, pp. 140-41, cat no. 25, NJ18.St915 A1213 2012 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)Roberta Smith, Horses, Hounds and Men, at Work and at Play, New York Times, August 7, 2015, p. C19, C22, Available online : Proquest .com/nytimesStubbs, an exhibition in honor of Paul Mellon : National Gallery of Art, 4 May-2 June 1985. , National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1985, no. 7, V 0413 (YCBA)Malcolm Warner, Stubbs and the Horse, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2004, pp. 86, 184-85, cat. no. 46, fig. 79, NJ18 St915 W37 (YCBA)John Wilmerding, Essays in honor of Paul Mellon, collector and benefactor, Essays , National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC & Hanover, NH, 1986, pp. 34-35, fig. 6, N7442.2 M455 1986 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Turf was owned by Frederick St. John, second Viscount Bolingbroke, the dissipated racing enthusiast who also owned the racehorse Lustre, seen in another painting by George Stubbs (shown nearby). Turf is represented with his jockey at Newmarket, headquarters of British racing, in front of a brick rubbing house where stablehands would wipe down sweating horses after an exercise or race. A small and fastidious study of the rubbing house is also shown nearby. Acquired by Bolingbroke in 1764, Turf proved himself by beating King Herod at Newmarket in a 1,000-guinea race in April 1766. This painting was probably commissioned to commemorate the victory, though Turf was retired lame only a year later. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016-present