Horse Art Category

The Horses of Paulus Potter

Paulus Potter was a Dutch painter during the mid 17th century, he lived a short but artistic life and died of tuberculosis before reaching his 30th birthday. Much of his short life was spend observing and painting barnyard animals, particularly cows and horses.

Animal Portraits

Potter may well have been the first pet portrait artist, as his subjects were the animals themselves. He was said to have wandered the Dutch countryside with his sketchbook in hand – fascinated with the harmony between the animals, their surroundings and the light that played upon them.
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The Horses of Wilhelm von Kobell

Wilhelm von Kobell was a German painter during the late 18th and early 19th century. He recieved artistic training from a young age in Germany and tried a number of styles, however he came to base his particular style on Dutch art.

Painting The Rich

Kobell grew to be a prolific painter and was well-respected for his landscapes, portrait work, agrarian and battle scenes, all of which often featured horses. The horses in his art are handsome and bold, a clear sign that their owners are wealthy.
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The Horses of Karl Briullov

Karl Briullov was a Russian painter of the late 18th and early 19th century. His work was instrumental in the Russian art transition from neoclassicism to romanticism. Although horses are a purely incidental subject in his work, the art speaks for itself.

Romantic Portraits

The inclusion of animals in his work generally comes from his subjects – horses have long been used in portraits of royalty and wealthy patrons. Briullov simply applied his detailed artistic style to mounts when it was required of him.
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The Horses of Wouterus Verschuur

Wouterus Verschuun was a Dutch painter who focused his art on animal subjects, primarily horses. In keeping with Dutch art traditions both his attention to detail and anatomy manages to be simple and embellished all at the same time.

Popular Animal Artist

As a youth Verschuun studied with landscape and cattle painters who clearly helped him develop an admiration for the common working animal. He left a legacy of 400 paintings and some 2000 drawings when he died in 1874. Not to mention a protégé who later went on to become quite the celebrated equine artist himself, Anton Mauve.
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The Horses of Karl Bodmer

Karl Bodmer was born in Switzerland and studied art there until he turned 24 when he was pegged by Prince Alexander of Wid-Newuied to accompany him to the New World. The purpose of the trip – to study the Native tribes of America.

American Adventure

Bodmer accompanied the prince throughout North America for several years learning and painting the local people along the way (81 images of them). His work embodies many native cultures we no longer see today and provide a fairly realistic & objective view of life for North American tribes during the early 19th century.
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The Horses of Ludwig Koch

Ludwig Koch was a renowned equestrian painter in his home country of Austria and today his work is known throughout the world. Clearly he had a thing for dressage and coming from Austria he had plenty of material to work with.

Unknown In The Crowd

Sadly when Ludwig immigrated to the US in the 1920’s his art went unappreciated there during the rest of his lifetime. However love of the subject matter is obvious in each loving detail of his work.
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Grey Horse Art

Lately I’ve been focusing a lot on horse art, but I can’t help it, the more I find the more I look for. My color series has been particularly enjoyable as they span many years, artistic types & cultures.

So Much Color

Today I want to focus on the art of grey animals, and I was able to find a lot of it. Grey animals are often used in portraits and generally depicted as a strong & slightly dappled mount. This will definitely be a multi-part post so keep checking back for parts 2 & 3. For now be sure to check out the other colors of horses in art, white (pt. 2) | black (pt. 2) | red | pinto | palomino | appaloosa | Bay (Pt. 2)
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George and the Dragon Pt. 2

Cario Crivelli - 1490Not too long ago I posted about art based around the story of St. George & the Dragon. It’s a rather romantic story and St. George was a brave chap, his story is celebrated by a number of cultures.

A Long Tradition

Of the artwork I was able to find, the earliest was painted in the middle of the 14th century & artists have been celebrating this hero in paint ever since. These works span the 15th century through the 20th century and the subject is still as romantic & exciting as it was when the first brush hit the first canvas.
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Circus Horses in Art

While I’m not a huge fan of traveling circuses I don’t feel as bad about enjoying a little art on the subject. Perhaps the most interesting part about these pieces is the sort of surreal point of view they all seem to take.

Art of All Types

In most of these images the horses are grand and handsome figures & I’m guessing (hoping anyway) that some of the original circuses were proud of their animals & took great care of them.
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