Horse Art Category

The Horses of Rosa Bonheur

Rosa Bonheur was a French painter during the mid to late 19th century and she was widely known for her animal paintings. Her father was an artist and she began to study with him at an early age.

An Artistic Life

Most of her life was spent painting her animal subjects and exhibiting her work. There were very few females among her contemporaries, but Bonheur had no trouble making a name for herself. In fact, she was a flamboyant liberal who wore her hair short, smoked cigars and dressed in mens clothing. Although horses aren’t her sole subject, she captures them with a clearly equestrian perspective.
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The Horses of Théodore Géricault

Théodore Géricault was a French painter during the early 19th century and was known for two things, horses and his romantic artistic style. One of the few independently wealthy artists I’ve featured, it seems Théodore did as he pleased.

Self Taught Artist

Géricault was a life-long horse lover and found himself fascinated with horses at a young age. He had no formal art education but the first studio he joined was that of Carle Vernet, another equestrian artist. Throughout his life he absorbed the styles of many artists each one contributing a little to his work.
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The Horses of Albrecht Adam

Albrecht Adam was a German artist during the early 19th century known for his battle scenes and his lovely horses. Bringing to the canvas his life experience on the battlefield & his obvious connection with horses.

Making A Name

Adam spent some time in Vienna where his work captured the attention of Napoleon’s stepson Eugène de Beauharnais and began to paint for him. Most of his work after that focused on Napoleon’s Russian campaign. Unlike many of the other great artists
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The Horses of Vasily Vereshchagin

Vasily Vereshchagin was a Russian painter during the late 19th century who was celebrated for depicting battle scenes in his work. He became one of the first Russian artists to be recognized worldwide.

Art Mirroring Life

At 8 years Vereshchagin was sent to the Cadet Corps and graduated first in his naval school class. He left the service to pursue his art, but traveled with a military expedition to Turkestan. He re-entered the service for the Russo-Turkish War after which he rapidly produced pictures of war scenes. The images below lean more toward his scenes of Imperial rule in British India and his visit to Turkestan (much softer and more peaceful than his war imagery).
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The Horses of Aelbert Cuyp

Aelbert Cuyp was a Dutch painter during the late 17th century. He came from a family of artists and grew to become a celebrated landscape artist and the most famous member of the Cuyp family.

Hard to Credit

While Cuyp was a prolific artist he rarely dated his paintings which has made it difficult to put them in chronological order. Horses are not an important part of his art, but tend to make an appearance in the idyllic pastoral or lakeside scenes he was fond of painting.
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The Horses of Baron Antoine Jean Gros

Antoine-Jean Gros was a French painter during the late 18th and early 19th century. By the time he was 20 he had been accused of sympathizing with French royalists during the revolution and fled the country to Italy.

Meeting A Muse

It was in Milan that Gros met Napoleon, who would later be the subject of some of the most renowned work Gros would complete. At the end of the 18th century the artist made his way back to France where his portraits of Napoleon were celebrated and he was honored.
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The Horses of John Frederick Herring, Sr

John Frederick Herring, Sr was an English artist during the early 19th century. He showed a passion for sketching early in life but took a job as a coach driver to support his family.

Change of Course

It was his coaching job that actually led to Herring’s career as an artist. He was discovered by Charles Spencer-Stanhope who loved Herring’s work and immediately found him commissioned work. Initially he continued driving as he painted, but eventually his offers of sponsorship won and he pursued art full time.
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The Horses of John Ferneley

John Ferneley was an English painter during the early 19th century who specialized in scenes with hunters and sporting horses. His work shows hunting during a time when it was en vogue and he soon became sought after as an equestrian artist.

Conveying Motion

Ferneley became well known for creating panoramic paintings that show a sequence of events and was known to collaborate with Sir Frances Grant who traded him help painting characters for help painting horses.
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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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