Jean Richard GOUBIE
 (Paris, 1842 – Paris, 1899)

 Man in a top hat riding a bay thoroughbred with three stockings
 Oil on canvas
 Signed and dated 1888 lower left
 24.5 x 19.5 cm

 A student of Jean Léon GÉRÔME at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, GOUBIE took part in the Paris Salon from 1869 to 1893, obtaining a third class medal in 1874.

 GOUBIE must have impressed his master GÉRÔME because the latter invited him to join with seven other travelers on a painting expedition to Egypt and Asia Minor. The group included another student, Paul LENOIR, the realist painter, Léon BONNAT, two journalists, a doctor and another friend. GÉRÔME also invited his brother-in-law, Albert GOUPIL, an amateur photographer and son of the famous merchant and publisher. It was probably through this meeting that Goupil & Cie would later publish a series of paintings by GOUBIE accompanied by a verse of poetry as part of the Illustrations de Goupil aux Salons Français from 1873 to 1879.

 GOUBIE quickly achieved fame with his animal works, in particular those featuring horses described with meticulous, almost anatomical observation and ridden by elegant riders or amazons from the aristocratic or bourgeois world.

 GOUBIE was also very popular with American customers, probably thanks to GOUPILS. For example, his painting exhibited at the 1872 Salon and entitled Le prix de chasse was made for James H. STEBBINS of New York. The painting is now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. A second work, Horses and Characters, is also kept in an American museum in Cincinnati.

 Museum : Metropolitan Museum of New York, Cincinnati, Grenoble…