Yale Center for British Art
Creator:
George Stubbs, 1724–1806, British
Title:
The Farmer's Wife and the Raven
Date:
1786
Materials & Techniques:
beeswax and oil on millboard
Dimensions:
26 1/2 x 38 1/2 inches (67.3 x 97.8 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.94
Gallery Label:
This scene from John Gay’s popular book Fables (1727) is one of Stubbs’s rare excursions into literary subject matter. A farmer’s wife rides to market preoccupied with the thought of the profit that her eggs will bring. The croak of a raven perched on a branch makes her start from her “silver dream”; the horse falters beneath her, and the eggs are broken. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2022