George Stubbs was born in Liverpool, son of a currier. He had a minimum of formal instruction he was briefly a pupil of the minor painter Hamlet Winstanley. This was apparently enough to launch Stubbs off as a provincial portrait painter. As such he worked in Wigan, Leeds, York and at Hull. When at York he already knew enough anatomy to give private lessons to medical students at York Hospital and this led to his commissions in 1751 to illustrate a book on midwifery by Dr. John Burton. He learnt enough of etching from a local engraver to etch the plates himself. George Stubbs belongs to the artists whose names are re-discovered in the 20th century. At his time he was known only to a narrow circle of aristocratic sportsmen and horse lovers, for his contemporaries he was a mere horse-painter. A broadened critical view of the 20th century revealed the full extent of his achievement, his innovations and originality and power. His paintings are still mostly in private collections in the houses for which they were executed. This restricts the number of his admirers but his reassessment has lifted him to the level of the greatest of his time