On your wall
Conformation and the Parade Ring · The Conformation
Gimcrack on Newmarket Heath
George Stubbs, oil on canvas, c.1765 · oil on canvas
What it is
On the open heath, a small grey racehorse stands saddled, trainer and stable-lad at his head, the rubbing-down house reduced to a toy on the skyline behind them.
Why it matters
Gimcrack was barely fourteen hands and kept winning past horses built twice his size; Stubbs paints the yard's whole working cast around him rather than a lone hero, because a horse this durable was made by more hands than one.
What to notice
The rubbing-down house, shrunk to almost nothing on the horizon — the real scale of Newmarket Heath is empty ground and weather.
Smallness that keeps winning earns its portrait.
Provenance
- Maker
- George Stubbs, oil on canvas, c.1765
- Era
- The Georgian Turf (1750–1837)
- Chapter
- The Yard Wakes
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Made
- 1765
- Horse
- Gimcrack
- Source
- Private collection (Jockey Club rooms provenance)
Print master
The largest formats are printed from a master enlarged 1.5× from the surviving 2672×4000 scan by AI enhancement (Claid smart-enhance), prepared for the considered detail of a print viewed at distance. The source record above is unchanged — the enhancement serves the wall, not the archive.
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. 95-year rule (published 1930 or earlier). Gated by the work’s own year of publication. Cleared by registry on 2026-07-20.
Format
The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.
Sized to protect print quality — this scan supports sizes up to 24x36" cleanly.
Size
$29.00
More from the Stable Wall
Whistlejacket
Race Horses Before the Stands
The Horse Fair
Mr E. J. Irwin's Foig-a-Ballagh, Winner of the 1844 St Leger
Elsewhere in the family
- The Links — the other morning religion.
- Painted Lineage — the bloodline, beside the family line.
- Painted Earth — home ground as a period map.