We are just putting the final touches to our 2016 catalogue and getting ready for our annual exhibition of recent acquisitions in New York. It was great to see our important study by George Stubbs of The Legs of a Draughthorse featured in The Financial Times on Saturday. This finely executed study is an exceptionally rare autograph drawing by George Stubbs and appears to be the only animal drawing by him to have been on the market since 1947. As Judy Egerton noted in her Catalogue Raisonné in 2007: ‘The greatest gap in our knowledge of Stubbs’s working methods lies in the unaccountable disappearance of almost all of his drawings.’ There is a large body of evidence to suggest that Stubbs made drawings throughout his career and a number of discreet groups of studies survive relating to his anatomical projects. Indeed Basil Taylor calculated that no fewer than ‘575 drawings on separate sheets or in sketchbooks’ were sold in Stubbs’s studio sale in 1807. This is the first drawing from the 1807 sale to be identified; as such it is not only important evidence of the kind of graphic material that is currently missing from Stubbs’s oeuvre but a beautiful sheet demonstrating the full power of Stubbs as a draughtsman.

We will be exhibiting this drawing along with other important British paintings, drawings and sculpture at Stellan Holm, 1018 Madison Avenue from 23rd January to 30th January.