Stubbs and the Wild review – a radical world vision seen through animal eyes

Holburne Museum, Bath
Terrified horses, playful leopards, anxious lemurs … the 18th-century painter’s acute observation and compassion are vividly present in this impactful show

A white horse trembles in terror, veins throbbing in its flanks, its mane thrust forward as if galvanised by electricity, its mouth open in shock. Every muscle of its tremulous body is a beacon of distress. As Horace Walpole, author of the Gothic horror story The Castle of Otranto, observed when Horse Frightened by a Lion was first exhibited in the 1760s, this poor, suffering animal expresses more with a fetlock than a poet with verse.

Racehorses were rockstars in 18th century Britain, and Stubbs was their society portraitist

Related: Under the skin of George Stubbs's The Anatomy of the Horse

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