Horses in Irish Art: Achill, Punchestown and the Hunt

Horses run through Irish culture more deeply than almost any other animal. They pull ploughs and carts in the older paintings, carry riders over the Kildare plains, and turn up in the oldest stories we have. Irish artists have painted them as sport, as labour, as myth and, in one famous case, as pure rhythm. This guide follows them through the prints in our collection.

Horses in the old stories

In the Táin Bó Cúailnge, Cú Chulainn drives a chariot pulled by two horses, Liath Macha (the Grey of Macha) and Dubh Sainglenn (the Black of Saingliu). The tale was written down in medieval manuscripts, but it reflects a world in which a horse was wealth, weapon and companion. That idea never quite left the island. If you enjoy the older layer of Irish imagery, our guide to Mythic Ireland in Art goes further into it.

Achill Horses: Mainie Jellett's best-known landscape

The most celebrated horse painting in Irish art is probably Mainie Jellett's Achill Horses (1941), now in the National Gallery of Ireland. It is an oil on canvas, 61 × 92 cm, and it shows the animals broken into overlapping geometric planes, the Cubist method she brought back from Paris and applied to a very Irish scene. Jellett also painted another picture of the same name in 1938, which is in private hands, so it is worth checking which one you are looking at.

It works well because it is both recognisable and unfixed. You can read it as horses on a hillside or simply as curves and colour, and it holds a large wall. The archival print is available in several sizes and frames, and the canvas suits a bigger room. For the wider story of her work, see the Mainie Jellett artist page or browse the full Mainie Jellett collection. Achill itself features in our piece on Irish islands in art.

The racecourse: Punchestown

Racing is the other great Irish horse subject. Punchestown, in County Kildare, is one of the country's best-known racecourses, and John Fergus O'Hea's Punchestown Races records it in the 19th century: the drama of the course itself, and the crowd who came as much to be seen as to watch.

This is a good print for a study, a hallway or a dining room, and an easy gift for anyone who follows the horses. You will find more in the same vein in our Lavery sport collection.

The hunt and the open country

Francis Danby, born near Wexford in 1793 and trained in Dublin, is better known for vast biblical storms, but his The Stag Hunt shows the Romantic habit of making the chase small and the landscape enormous. A stag breaks for open ground with the hunt behind it, tiny against weather and sky. The animal is the pretext; the scale of the place is the subject.

Riders abroad: Lavery's Morning Ride

Not every Irish horse picture is set in Ireland. John Lavery's The Morning Ride was painted in Tangier in the early 1900s, with two riders picking their way through a garden past whitewashed walls. Lavery spent time there, and the picture is a reminder of how far Irish painters travelled and how comfortable they were with horses as a subject. Read more on the John Lavery artist page.

Choosing a horse print for your home

For a modern room, Jellett's Achill Horses is the obvious choice. For a traditional one, Punchestown or Danby's stag hunt suit panelling, a library or a country-house look. Lavery is lighter and works in a bright hallway or bedroom. For the wider range of animal subjects, see Plants & Animals, or start from the full Irish art prints collection.