Whistlejacket [SEP] creator
Whistlejacket
Whistlejacket is an oil on canvas painting from about 1762 by the British artist George Stubbs showing the Marquess of Rockingham's racehorse approximately at life-size, rearing up against a plain background. The canvas is large, lacks any other content except some discreet shadows, and Stubbs has paid precise attention to the details of the horse's appearance. It has been described in "The Independent" as "a paradigm of the flawless beauty of an Arabian thoroughbred". The Fitzwilliam family, heirs of the childless Rockingham,
1762 for "Eighty Guineas for one Picture of a Lion and another of a Horse Large as Life", probably a different picture for Rockingham's London house. Earlier in 1762, Stubbs had painted a second portrait of Whistlejacket, with two other unnamed stallions and a groom, Joshua or Simon Cobb.
According to a story in the biography of Stubbs by his friend and fellow-painter Ozias Humphrey, when the portrait was nearly finished Whistlejacket was accidentally led in front of it by a stable boy and reacted violently,