Portrait of a Horse - Jacques-Laurent Agasse

horse agasse oil painting art history realism eighteenth century

















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Agasse painted many horses in his lifetime. Portrait of a horse is a depiction almost of anatomical precision, there is no distraction to the subject even to the exclusion of background scenery of any kind.
Agasse shows his technical expertise by depicting alomst every hair on the animals body to perfection, showing virtually all the hairs along the flank of the animal as well as the legs. He has shown the muscles by an interplay of light and shade across the body and head. The animal is standing as for a formal portrait rather than in action poses, much as a human sitter would pose.