Horses, Goat and a Man

Dirck Stoop · n.d.

Medium

Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, heightened with touches of white gouache, over graphite, on cream laid paper

Original size

13.9 × 18.7 cm (5 1/2 × 7 3/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Baroque

*Horses, Goat and a Man* carries the quiet intimacy of a study made from life — animals and figure arranged with the loose confidence of an artist completely at home with his subject. Dirck Stoop was a Dutch-born draughtsman and painter who spent formative years working in Lisbon, where equestrian culture was central to court life. That immersion shows here: the horses are observed rather than composed, their weight and posture convincing in a way that only comes from sustained looking. Working in pen and brown ink over graphite, with washes and touches of white gouache to model form and light, Stoop built up a tonal range that feels surprisingly painterly for work on paper. Stoop is documented as having accompanied Catherine of Braganza from Lisbon to England in 1662 when she married Charles II, serving the royal household and cementing his reputation as one of the foremost painters of horses and hunting subjects at the English court. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates the warmth of Stoop's ink and wash into oil on canvas, preserving the earthy tonal palette and the unhurried, observational quality that makes the original feel like a private glimpse into a working artist's eye.