Provenance
Painted for Samuel Sharpe Pocklington [d. 1781], Chelsworth Hall, Suffolk; by descent through his elder son, Colonel Sir Robert Pocklington, who married Catherine Blagrave, to John Blagrave, Calcot Park, Berkshire; (sale, Messrs. Foster, London, 28 June 1911, no. 102); purchased by Francis Howard for (M. Knoedler & Co., New York, London, and Paris); purchased by 1913 by Charles Stewart Carstairs [1865-1928], London; by inheritance to his wife, Mrs. Charles S. Carstairs [née Elizabeth Stebbins, d. 1949], London;[1] bequest 1952 to NGA.
[1] According to a letter (copy in NGA curatorial files) from Mrs. Carstairs to David Finley, 15 November 1947, the painting never left England, and always hung in the Carstairs house in London. Charles S. Carstairs was the director of Knoedler's London branch. Mrs. Carstairs' maiden name is provided in a letter of 13 February 1995 from Dr. Lorne Campbell, of the National Gallery, London, in NGA curatorial files.
Captain Samuel Sharpe Pocklington with His Wife, Pleasance, and possibly His Sister, Frances
1769
Accession Number
1952.9.4
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 100.2 x 126.6 cm (39 7/16 x 49 13/16 in.) | framed: 120.7 x 146.4 x 7.6 cm (47 1/2 x 57 5/8 x 3 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Charles S. Carstairs in memory of her husband, Charles Stewart Carstairs
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas British
Background & Context
Background Story
George Stubbs (1724-1806) was an English painter known for his anatomically precise paintings of horses that combine the precision of the anatomist with the elegance of the sporting painter. Captain Samuel Sharpe Pocklington with His Wife, Pleasance, and possibly His Sister, Frances from 1769 is a group portrait that includes horses in the precise, elegant manner that distinguishes Stubbs's best work. The 1769 date places this in Stubbs's most productive period, when he was producing the horse portraits that are his most accomplished works, and the group portrait format allows him to combine equine and human portraiture in a single composition.
Cultural Impact
Captain Pocklington and Family is important in Stubbs's oeuvre because it demonstrates his ability to combine equine and human portraiture in a single composition. The 1769 group portrait shows Stubbs applying the anatomical precision that he had developed in his studies of horse anatomy to the group portrait format, creating a painting that is simultaneously a horse portrait and a family portrait—a combination that no other painter of the period could achieve with Stubbs's anatomical precision.
Why It Matters
Captain Pocklington and Family is Stubbs combining equine and human portraiture: a group portrait with horses rendered in the anatomical precision and elegant composition that make Stubbs's horse paintings the most accomplished in English art. The 1769 painting shows the anatomist-painter at his most productive.
