Painterly pique
From Dr J.W. Millar Sir: I enjoyed Michael Prodger’s article on George Stubbs’s magnificent equestrian portrait of ‘Hambletonian Rubbing Down’ (Arts, 14 May).
As a child I often visited Mount Stewart and saw the original painting there. Local legend always had it that Stubbs was so frustrated by Vane-Tempest’s refusal to honour his contract that, in a fit of pique, he repainted the right arm of the stable lad, placing the hand further down the horse’s neck. Close inspection of the picture reveals that the stable lad would have needed a elastic right arm, at least a foot longer than his left arm, to place his hand in the position illustrated in the painting.
All the other anatomical details are so precisely correct that I am inclined to believe that Stubbs had his subtle revenge on Vane-Tempest, but the repainted hand does not in any way detract from the magnificence of the portrait.
J.W. Millar
Cranborne, Dorset
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