The Horse: 30,000 Years of the Horse in Art

by Tamsin Pickeral

Of all man's fellow-creatures, the horse, with its inherent gracefulness, intelligence, speed, resilience and courage, has inspired the strongest feelings of empathy – an affinity reflected in more than 30,000 years of artistic representation in both East and West. This stunningly illustrated history of the horse in art documents the creative journey from prehistoric cave paintings to the war horses of Uccello, the thoroughbred portraits of Stubbs, the enigmatic prints of Elisabeth Frink and beyond. It explores the role of the horse in Eastern imagery and as the subject of myth and legend; as a symbol of power and an ally in war; as the subject of anatomical scrutiny and the romantic embodiment of human feeling; and as the emblem of sporting pleasures and prowess. The book sheds particular light on man's relationship with the horse, and on the story of equine evolution from the stocky primitive to today's thoroughbred.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art History, Nature, Historical, Horses, Animals

287 pages, Hardcover

First published September 26, 2006

About the author

Tamsin Pickeral is an art historian and an author of books on art, horses, animals and travel.

She wrote her first book, The Encyclopedia of Horses and Ponies (published 1999) while living in the US, where she stayed for eight years, and has since that time written or co-written over twenty books.

She has lived back in the UK since 2004.

Pickeral's books are published internationally and have received critical acclaim in the media. This includes her book The Horse: 30,000 Years of the Horse in Art, chosen as Book of the Week by The Guardian newspaper (2006), and her book, The Dog: 5,000 Years of the Dog in Art, picked as one of the Top Fifty Art Books of the Year, 2008 by the Financial Times and voted into the Sunday Times Books Of The Year, Art, 2008.

Reviews

[Jenny]

This is a great book with lovely examples of horse art.

The front cover is a beautiful painting by Landseer and the book is worth it for that alone !
It is one of my favourite paintings.

To read a bit more about Landseer please have a look at my website :
http://www.jenniferwilsonart.co.uk/Hi...

[Kathryn]

Good book showing artwork of horses, & showing famous artists who painted pictures of horses.

[Fidelia Stables]

Beautiful book

[Barbara]

I can't say anything against the art critique, or the art itself (a lot of which I really liked) but it bugged me how the author takes every opportunity to drag (w/o any reasoning) Genghis Khan, and to add a little Eurocentric racism to insult, also more than once lauds Napoleon as a "great general" etc.. I found the conventional (racist) thinking and obvious disparity very tiresome and annoying.

I'd like to think it's just a product of the way most people are taught history, but I wish the author had left some of the historical commentary out and stuck to horses and art.

[Catherine]

A stunning book, another triumph by a fantastic author.