Posted on: 27 January 2013

Cheetah and Stag with Two Indians - c.1765
By George Stubbs

Oil on canvas, 182.7 x 275.3 cm

A painting inspired by an incident that took place in 1764, when a cheetah brought to England from India was pitched against a stag in a hunting demonstration at Windsor. The cheetah, seen in profile to the right, wears a collar, a red hood and a red belt harness tied around its abdomen; kneeling to the far side of the cheetah is one of the male figures, wearing a white robe with a single button at the neck and a turban of spotted white fabric, restraining the animal by its belt; he turns his head to the right, looking towards where the second male figure is gesturing.

This figure, also with a white robe, worn over a pair of red trousers, and red shoes with extravagantly curled-up toes, has a plain white turban. He looks in the direction of the cheetah and gestures with both hands towards a stag standing behind him on the right. The stag turns its head towards the cheetah; both animals stare at one another. There is an anatomical disparity between the stag's body, which is based on that of a British red deer, and its antlers, painted from those of an Indian sambar. The scene is depicted on a plateau within an imaginary landscape; to the left are dramatic cliffs atop a grassy slope, to the right, below the stag, is a river, which draws the eye into a landscape of woodland and undulating hills; the sky shows glimpses of blue through a bank of stormy clouds.

Collection: Manchester City Galleries


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nice............

What do you mean you don't want to , just go and eat him !

What a lovely painting.

Worry not , the cheetah had a good and easy meal to the delight of the Britons. That is lesser of a point to me. I am impressed with the painting of the cheetah and the stag ; but not with the painter for his stereotype of presenting all Indians with turbans and silly clumsy outfits for he and most of the western artists up to 18th century did not practice well how to paint Indian outfits and mostly painted Indian subcontinental humans darker than they are. I do not have any predilection for fair skin either.

This was the usual outfit of people who handled hunting leopards, as cheetahs were known then- they were used to hunt and retrieve game..

The painting is revealing in it's setting too. The Asian cheetah, brought to England to humour the British is confused with the weather, the setting and tired from the long journey. The coolies are trying their best to provoke him to the hunt. It is a very Conrad moment.

Beautiful documentation, especially when Photography was in its childhood!

beautiful ....:)

wonderful, love it!

A nice diversion from the ritual slaughter of foxes by hounds egged on by mounted nobility.

wow what a painting !!!!!!!!!!!!

The two guys are probably from South India. Cheetahs were part of the royal menageries of both the Nizam of Hyderabad and Haidar Ali. A few cheetahs were found in Tipu Sultan's palace, at Srirangapatnam, after his death (along with the pet tigers, of course). Indians who went to England, especially accompanying royal gifts like these, *did* dress in this rather "stereotypical" Oriental style. However, the dress of Indian courtiers was considerably more "Turkish" in appearance during this period, and Indian dignitaries visiting Britain tended to adopt this style - or have it thrust upon them - both because it was what Europeans expected and because of the climate. When the Maratha ambassador went to London in the early 1780s, intending to live there like a proper Brahmin, he practically starved and froze to death. Edmund Burke, fortunately, found him a warm place to stay in Islington, with a greenhouse, so that he could have fresh vegetables during the winter and maintain a proper, ritually pure diet.

That's an incredible painting

this painting truelly depicts the hunting days of the kings of the south, specially Hydrabad, Mysore, Kolhapur where cheetahs were used to hunt down deer, stags and other game..

Sir What The picture Says pl Explain its My Sons Request