Cheetah with Two Indian Servants and a Stag

George Stubbs executed this scene of an exotic hunting cheetah with its handlers and prey. The composition combines Stubbs's scientific observation of animal anatomy with the fascination for Eastern subjects that characterized British imperial culture.

Stubbs was Britain's greatest animal painter, famous for his anatomically precise horses. This unusual subject records a cheetah brought to England from India. The work at Manchester Art Gallery.