Yak
Reproduction
Object numberRCSSC/P 268
Scientific nameBos grunniens
CollectionHunterian Art
CategoryVisual works
Object nameAnimal subjects (visual works), Oil paintings
TitleYak
DescriptionPainting of a yak, by George Stubbs, signed and dated, 1791.
The animal is shown full length, in profile, facing towards the left, against a background of steep hills falling away towards a valley or lake on the left.
This yak was brought back alive by Warren Hastings (1732-1818), the first British Governor-General of India. It was kept at Hastings’ country estate at Daylesford in Gloucestershire. Hastings commissioned a painting of it from Stubbs in 1783-4: the painting is still in Daylesford, and was engraved for Samuel Turner's 'Account of an Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet' (London, 1800).
John Hunter commissioned this version from Stubbs in 1791. It was among the paintings displayed in his museum in Leicester Square.
Production date 1791
Owner/user
transferred
Physical Location
LocationOn display in the Hunterian Museum, Room 6: Leicester Square
Physical Information
Physical descriptionOil on canvas, 57cm by 73cm.
Bibliography
SourceLennox-Boyd et al 1989
366-367
NotesFull listing of the various engravings after Stubbs' painting of Warren Hastings' yak. Copy in object file.
SourceClift 1816
NotesManuscript list titled "A List of Paintings and Drawings framed and glazed, numbered according to the Situation in which they were placed round the rail of the Gallery in Mr. Hunter's museum in Castle Street Leicester Square"
Transcript15. An East Indian Buffalo, brought to this country by Warren Hastings Esq.
The Bos Grunniens, grunting Ox
The Yak or Tartar Ox. By George Stubbs
The Tail is milk white, and silky soft, are used in the East as Fly-flaps. W. C.
