Tips and techniques from artists across the ages

As well as being the home of historic royal carriages and all road transport for The King, the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace is also one of the finest working stables in existence, responsible for the training of the Windsor Greys and Cleveland Bays – the horses that pull the royal carriages.

Take inspiration from some of the many studies and paintings depicting horses in the Royal Collection, and discover the techniques used by artists across the ages to achieve excellence in equine art.

Leonardo da Vinci

This study of a horse with lines of proportion drawn onto its body was carried out by Leonardo da Vinci in the late fifteenth century.

He made a number of studies of horses in preparation for works of art, such as an equestrian monument commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, for his father, Francesco.

Although this study is not firmly linked to any particular project, the inclusion of lines of proportion on the body of the horse suggest that it forms part of Leonardo da Vinci’s wider investigations into the principles of equine anatomy, which informed his artistic output.

George Stubbs

Almost three hundred years after Leonardo da Vinci’s studies of equine anatomy, the equestrian artist George Stubbs (1724–1806) spent eighteen months early in his career studying and drawing the anatomy of horses in order to better understand and therefore better portray horses in his paintings. The Royal Collection includes a number of works by Stubbs which demonstrate his mastery of equine anatomy and movement, such as this painting of a bay horse, Hollyhock.

Although several of Stubbs’s paintings include landscapes and people, the principal focus is usually the figure of the horse. Indeed, in this painting, Stubbs was responsible only for painting the horse itself, with the other aspects completed by two additional artists: the landscape by Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714–89), and the figures in the background by François Boucher (1703–70). Stubbs sometimes made significant changes to a composition over time. In ‘A Grey Horse’ for example, the figure of a rider has been removed from the finished painting - an elimination just visible to the naked eye.

James Ward

Whereas Stubbs tended to give prominence to the figure of the horse in a naturalistic setting, the animal painter James Ward (1769–1859) often sought to situate the horse within the context of a more dramatic and emotionally-charged landscape, as in this impressive scene framed by a rainbow with Windsor in the background. This painting is unusual for this date in being painted on wood panel rather than canvas.

Edwin Landseer

Painted in the wake of Prince Albert’s death, Edwin Landseer’s 'Queen Victoria at Osborne' captures Queen Victoria in deep mourning sitting on her pony, Flora, and accompanied by the ghillie John Brown.

Although there were several sittings for the painting, Landseer also used photographs to aid his composition. These included images of the Queen on horseback, thus helping him in his execution of this central aspect of the painting.

Why not try:

Whether experimenting with lines of proportion, adding dramatic backgrounds, or using photographs to help focus your work, why not try out some of these techniques used by artists across the ages in your own drawing of a horse?