East Riding Museums

This item is in the Burton Constable Hall collections and is included on this database by kind permission of the Burton Constable Foundation. The son of a taxidermist, Christophe Fratin was born at Metz, in France. With a passion for sculpting animals, he became one of the foremost animalier sculptors of the early 19th century. Having spent his early years as a taxidermist, Fratin developed a sound understanding of the anatomy of animals and a heightened appreciation of their form. Although it is not known when the Arab Stallion came into the collection, as Marianne, Lady Clifford Constable (1800-62), had a sentimental attachment to all animals, and her husband, Sir Thomas Aston Clifford Constable (1806-70), was obsessed with horses, it seems likely the couple acquired this piece on one of their many visits to France during the 1830s and ‘40s. Located in the Staircase Hall.