For the past month I have been assisting Dr. Michaela Giebelhausen, from the university’s Art History and Visual Studies department, conduct research for her future monograph on the artist George Stubbs. The title of this future work is to be, George Stubbs: The Horse in the English Landscape.
Michaela has myriad questions to answer with regards to this particular subject – a subject which has been mined by many academics – but one that Michaela feels is worthy of fresh interpretation. She instructed me to focus on the men who patronised Stubbs’ early career during the 1760s and 1770s; paying particular attention to their cultural interests. Michaela is keen to establish connections between activities such as; landscape gardening, architectural management, and artistic engagement, and the equine paintings they commissioned Stubbs to complete. Using an excel spreadsheet, I collated secondary-source information on these patrons – aristocrats such as 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, the 3rd Duke of Richmond, and 1st Earl of Grosvenor. I categorised the information by biography, their interest in racehorses/breeding, the work they commissioned on their houses and estates, and other cultural interests. These tables will help Michaela identify and establish patterns tying these men together.
Other work completed for the internship included the creation of an annotated bibliography, a list of sources for Michaela to chase, and a list of archives to visit. I also created a list of all the artworks that Stubbs exhibited in his lifetime. Detailing as to when it was exhibited, where it was exhibited, and who (if anyone) had commissioned the work. Again, a list such as this will help the project search for new patterns in the Stubbs story; in this case it useful to note Stubbs’ switch from the Society of Artists to the Royal Academy in 1774, and analyse whether there are any major shifts in his art, as his audience and patronage shifted.
Despite recognising that Stubbs left little trace behind him, and that many scholars have searched in vain for revolutionary sources on the artist – it was still disappointing that I was unable to present Michaela with none of these golden nuggets. It was however, incredibly satisfying to take this deep dive into the Georgian era – discovering new things about the art, politics, architecture and sport of the time. And, I am confident that the work I carried out, and the documents I produced, will be of help to Michaela as she moves into the next stage of her research.
I’d like to thank the organisers of the Collaboraitve Research Internship for making opportunities such as this available to UOB students. It will be a massive thing to be able to put on my CV, talk about in interviews, as well as an experience to draw on as I move into the world of work after graduation.