Horse Paintings-A History Of
Horse paintings certainly have their place as one of the most popular forms of art throughout the world. I find when looking at horse art you find yourself just staring at the sheer power and beauty of these ancient animals. Their physique and beauty has inspired many great artists to create some of the most beautiful and inspiring forms of art ever.
Although horses have appeared throughout history in works of art they tended to be extremely popular a few centuries ago when the horse was used in transportation or as an implement of war. Todays modern representation of the animal tends to be in conjunction with horse racing, historical cowboys and Native America. It is still popular in the United Kingdom to find artists who favour rural scenes and fox hunting.
The image of the horse was very common in Greecian art and also Egyptian art and some of the most famous and popular paintings depicted horse drawn chariots. The history of horse art has really changed over the centuries and can be briefly summed up as the Renaissance period which started in the 14th Century and some famous painters include Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Titian. Peter Paul Rubens established equine portraiture in the Baroque era and at this time sporting art also became popular.
One very famous painter of horse art was George Stubbs who was born in 1724. George Stubbs, in fact, spent 18 months actually dissecting equine carcasses in order to study the form. George Stubbs has left behind an amazing array of work involving racehorses.
Horse racing started to become very popular in many countries during the 19th century and the French impressionist painter Edgar Degas is famous for depicting many of these races in his artwork.
One of my all time favourite horse paintings is “Guernica” by Pablo Picasso but there are so many beautiful and majestic artworks it is an amazing and fascinating subject.
