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The Labourers

George Stubbs, RA (Liverpool 1724 – London 1806)

Category

Art / Oil paintings

Date

1779 (signed and dated)

Materials

Oil on panel (oak)

Measurements

1175 x 1635 x 110 mm

Place of origin

England

Order this image

Collection

Upton House, Warwickshire

NT 446710

Caption

Stubbs’s original picture, signed and dated 1767 was one of a series of three commissioned by George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington depicting his outdoor servants and workmen on his estate at Southill, in Bedfordshire and now in the Museum of Art in Philadelphia. (M1928-1-40). Stubbs exhibited the later Upton version of this scene at the Royal Academy in 1779, a year before he was elected an Associate Royal Academician. Stubbs was, in general, inspired by rural subjects treated by Gainsborough, Wheatley and Morland. The composition is sharply divided into two halves, contrasting the old-fashioned rural ways of the labourers on the left, and the modern estate, with the new lodge and fencing, in the bright landscape to the right.

Summary

Oil painting on oak panel, The Labourers, by George Stubbs RA (Liverpool 1724 – London 1806), signed and dated: Geo. Stubbs pinxit 1779. A park landscape, with an entrance to a lodge in the background and four labourers on the left foreground who appear to be arguing over the tailboard of a horse and cart from which they have just unloaded bricks, near the edge of a wood; one leans on a stick, another lifts the tailboard of the cart, a third stands by doing nothing, while the fourth is about to get up from a sitting position in the cart. At the right a dog is lying in front of a group of four trees. Recent cleaning and conservation work has removed the yellowed varnish to reveal details such as the geese in front of the lodge and the clouds tinged with pink. A later version of Stubbs’ earlier commission for George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington, then titled Lord Torrington’s Bricklayers, at Southill, Bedfordshire, 1767 (now at the Museum of Art in Philadelphia, titled Laborers Loading a Brick Cart, cat. number M1928-1-40).

Full description

Stubbs’ original picture, signed and dated 1767 was one of a series of three paintings commissioned by Torrington, depicting his outdoor servants and workmen on his estate at Southill, in Bedfordshire. The other commissioned paintings include “Lord Torrington’s Steward and Gamekeeper with their Dogs, at Southill, Bedfordshire, 1767 (private collection) and Lord Torrington’s Hunt Servants, setting out from Southill, Bedfordshire, 1767 (private, Bute Collection at Mount Stewart). Ozias Humphry, a painter and friend of Stubbs who wrote the earliest account of Stubbs’ life recorded how the commission was gained, providing the fullest documented evidence of Stubbs’ working methods: “This Commission he received from the Noble Viscount in London who had often seen them at their Labours appearing like a Flemish subject and therefore he desired to have them represented – Mr: Stubbs arrived at Southill a little before dinner where he found with Lord Torrington the duke of Portland and other Noblemen and Gentlemen. during dinner the old men were ordered to prepare themselves for their Labours with a little cart drawn by Lord Torrington’s favourite old Hunter which was used only for these easy tasks – for this being the first Horse his Lordship ever rode was the principal motive for ordering this picture – ‘Mr Stubbs was a long time loitering about drawing the old Men without drawing anything that engaged them all so as to make a fit subject for a picture till at length they fell into a dispute about the manner of putting the Tail piece into the Cart, which dispute so favourable for his purpose lasted long enough for him to make a sketch of the picture Men, Horse and Cart as they have been represented. Thus having made the design as far as opportunity served he removed the Cart Horse and Men to a Neighbouring barn where they were kept well pleas’d and well fed till the picture was completed …’ Besides depicting Old Hunter, the dog in the lower right also held sentimental value for Torrington, being identified by Mary Spencer as his favourite old dog. The labourers appear old and, recalling 17th century Dutch and Flemish peasant scenes, are lightly mocked as they make little progress arguing over their task. Contrasted to the peasants, the horse waits patiently and the aristocratic greyhound tires of watching their antics and dozes. The composition likewise contrasts the rural labourers on the left with the new lodge, fencing and bright landscape on the right emphasising Torrington’s planned improvements to the estate. All three of Lord Torrington’s commissioned set were bought by William Wildman at the Torrington sale, lots 51-3. By 1790, the paintings of Labourers and Game Keepers were in the hands of Andrews Harrison who had the background Palladian gatehouse, probably designed by Isaac Ware, of the Southill estate painted over by Amos Green to show generic rural cottages. This repainted version was the basis for a series of engravings by Laurie and Earlom in 1790. This 1779 version was retitled to ‘Labourers’ when exhibited at the Royal Academy and formed the base of a later version painted on enamel for Josiah Wedgwood in 1781 (Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B2001.2.222). The ceramic plaques Stubbs used were developed specifically by Wedgwood for later large-scale enamels, such as Labourers and Reapers. Another enamel version featuring just the labourers and cart without the background house followed in 1788-1789 (see Tate T03779).

Provenance

Sir Walter Gilbey, 1st Bt (1831–1915), of Elsenham Hall, Essex, by 1898; his posthumous sale, Christie’s, 11 June 1915, lot 386: bought by Agnew; with Knoedler, 1919, from whom acquired by the 2nd Viscount Bearsted (as Captain Walter Samuel), in November 1919, for £500; given with Upton House to the National Trust by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted (1882 – 1948), in 1948, shortly before his death

Credit line

Upton House, The Bearsted Collection (National Trust)

Marks and inscriptions

Geo. Stubbs pinxit 1779 (signed and dated)

Makers and roles

George Stubbs, RA (Liverpool 1724 – London 1806), artist

Exhibition history

George Stubbs: 'all done from Nature', MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, 2019 - 2020 George Stubbs Exhibition, Neue Pinakothek, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich, 2012

References

Gilbey 1898 Sir Walter Gilbey, Life of George Stubbs, London, 1898, pp.155–6, No.16. Gore 1964: F. St John Gore, Upton House, The Bearsted Collection: Pictures National Trust, 1964, pp.28–29, no.85 George Stubbs: 'all done from Nature', exh.cat., MK Gallery, Milton Keynes 2019 and Mauritshuis, The Hague 2020, London 2019, p. 173 Warner and Blake 2004: Malcolm Warner and Robin Blake, Stubbs & the Horse, exh.cat, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 2004-5; Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD, 2005; National Gallery, London, 2005, New Haven and London 2004, pp.190-191, 204 Lennox-Boyd, Dixon and Clayton 1989: Christopher Lennox-Boyd, Rob Dixon and Tim Clayton, George Stubbs: The Complete Engraved Works, London, Stipple Publishing, 1989, pp. 210-215 Humphry 2000: Ozias Humphry, ‘Particulars of the Life of Mr Stubbs and other documents’, ed. Helen Macintyre in Fearful Symmetry: George Stubbs Painter of the English Enlightenment, ed. Nicholas H. J. Hall, Hall & Knight, 2000, pp.195-212, p. 204

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