Oil painting entitled 'Tigers in a Jungle' by Julius Caesar Ibbetson. Great Britain, ca. 1800-1817.

An oil painting showing three tigers before twisted trees.

Purchased, June 20th 1863 at the Christies sale of the collection of John Allnutt, Lot 217, for £4 4 shillings. The painting was sold as by Ibbetson.

John Allnutt, of Clapham Common, (1773-1863) was a wine merchant and well known art collector. He knew Constable and made him a present in 1825 of three sorts of ultramarine that he had bought in France ( Cove " ", p. 507, In. Parris, L and Fleming-Williams (eds.) Constable, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London, 1991) and R.B Beckett, John Constable's correspondence , pp.84-85. He collected work by contemporary British artists including a considerable number of watercolours by Turner; David Cox, Thomas Girtin, as well as oils by Wilson. His collection was sold by Christies, Manson and Woods in 1863. The V&A also bought a painting by Sawrey Gilpin (FA.238) at the sale when it acquired this work by Ibbetson.

In bottom left is a signature "GS". Although bought as an Ibbetson, in the early twentieth century this monogram was believed to be that of George Stubbs, the renowned animal painter (see Kendrick’s suggestion in a note transcribed into the 1907 interleaved catalogue).
B. Long notes in 1936 that this does not seem to be by George Stubbs and the attribution has been confirmed as Ibbetson.

Historical significance: Julius Caesar Ibbetson (1759-1817) worked as a painter, printmaker and writer. Following an apprenticeship to the ship painter John Fletcher in Hull, Ibbetson became a scene painter. He moved to London in 1777, where he worked as both a scene painter and picture restorer. From 1785 he began to exhibit landscapes, genre scenes and portraits at the Royal Academy. In 1787-8 he was the personal draughtsman to Col. Charles Cathcart (d.1788) on the first British Mission to Beijing. The voyage also included visits to Madeira, the Cape of Good Hope and Java. Forced to return to England following Cathcart’s death, Ibbetson worked painting oils and watercolours of the subjects seen on his frequent tours. He also contributed a Scene from the “Taming of the Shrew” (untraced) to John Boydells (1719-1804) Shakespeare Gallery. Ibbetson also worked as an illustrator, providing works for John Church’s folio A cabinet of Quadrupeds (1805). The artist moved to the north of England in 1798. He spent time living in Liverpool and Edinburgh before settling in the town of Masham, North Yorkshire. In 1803 he published An Accidence, or Gamut, of Painting in Oils and Water Colours, part autobiography, part technical handbook. In this he sited Claude Lorrain and Aelbert Cuyp as masters of Landscape composition. In his paintings Ibbetson’s style often changes depending on the subject he has chosen to represent. His technique often employs a thick impasto and strong chiaroscuro, a style which he developed through studying from Dutch masters while working for a London dealer named Clarke in the late 1770s and early 1780s. Like his contemporary George Morland (17191-1797), Ibbetson is known to have painted works of different standards to be sold.


This exotic subject is unusual for Ibbetson. Although he travelled to the Cape of Good Hope and Java in 1787-8 few oil paintings survive that draw from this voyage.

During the eighteenth century Britain was expanding its links with the Eastern world. This was partly established through the East India Trading Company, founded in 1600. The increasing strength of company allowed Britain to expand its areas of trade in India and China. Ibbetson himself had been part of an envoy that had set out to travel to and establish trading links with China in 1787-8. Through these trade links an interest in Indian and Oriental culture began to develop in Europe. This extended to a fascination with depictions of exotic animals in their natural environs.

This interest in exotic animals is possibly most evident in the work of the British animal painter George Stubbs, who painted numerous scenes with lions attacking horses or lions and leopards playing. Stubbs also collaborated with the printmaker John Dixon to produce engravings after his work. These prints were extremely popular with contemporary audiences. The most highly praised print after a work by Stubbs is A Tigress. It was based on a painting by Stubbs in the collection of the Duke of Marlborough Blenheim Palace. A comparison with the Ibbetson painting of Tigers in a Jungle shows that the tiger at the back of the composition is based on Stubbs’ original painting or print. There is no documentation of Ibbetson having contact with the Duke of Marlborough and therefore having access to his collection at Blenheim Palace. Considering the popularity of the print, which was published by John Dixon in 1772 and Robert Laurie in 1800, it is most likely that this was the source for the painting at the V&A. The setting for the V&A painting is different, placing the three tigers in a jungle instead of in front of a rock. It is unknown what the source is for the other two tigers in the painting.

In the bottom left of the painting is the monogram “GS”. Although the painting was catalogued in the Allnutt sale in 1863 as Ibbetson, in 1907 Kendrick identified this as the signature of the well renowned eighteenth century animal painter, George Stubbs (1724-1806), (see note on departmental file). Considering the subject matter it is perhaps no surprise that the painting was attributed to the better known Stubbs. The monogram however is a later addition. The painting was re-attributed to Ibbetson by Basil Long in 1936 (see note on object file).

George Stubbs's monogram appears in one corner but this is almost certainly a later addition.

FA.239[O]