Taming the Shrew (The Pretty Horsebreaker)
After Sir Edwin Henry Landseer British
Engraver James Stephenson British
Publisher Henry Graves & Co. British
Not on view
This print is based on a painting that Landseer exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1861 as "The Shrew Tamed." Adapted from Shakespeare's play, the title here refers to a mettlesome horse tamed by a female equestrienne and the work shows a young woman wearing a dark riding habit lying against the side of her now docile mount in a barn. The likely sitter was Annie Gilbert, a famed horsewoman and friend of Landseer's. In his diary, the artist wrote "A.G. has no end of lovers, but seems to patronize me! I suppose she thinks my Picture will be a trump card for her." Contemporaries speculated that the work instead represented Catherine "Skittles" Walters, mistress of the Prince of Wales and one of the "pretty horsebreakers" who attracted public attention riding in Hyde Park, and that led to later confusion about the sitter's identity.
