Submitted by Sir Joshua, Feb 15, 2007 08:44

English art first came to life in 1630 when Charles I invited Van Dyck to England to do for him what Titian had done for Charles V, visual Public Relations work. Van Dyck did an 'Armido and Rinalda' now at the Baltimore Museum that took English art from stick men and iconic generic portraits of kings to the world of gods and goddesses. English art came to life with a truly Baroque flourish.

It wasn't until the 18th CEntury that English arts and letters started to come to life on their own. Until then virtually all art was imported: Holbien, Rubens, Van Dyck, Lely, etc. It is no wonder that Stubbs has a decoupage quality about him, but he is a definite foot in the ring. He was one of the first native born sons to enter the ring, and to do so he had to do it as the errand boy of the ruleing class and their fascination with horse-flesh. But we should take our hats off to him as the innovator he was. He introduced the Romantic imagry of horses and lions which Gericault and Delacroix would only pick up some 50 years later in France. Patrick Noon's exhibition of '03, 'Constable to Delacroix' was well named. The influence on French Romantic art by the English was substantial. And it probably goes back to Stubbs as the source of at least part of its imagery.

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