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Lucy Kemp-Welch

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Lucy Kemp-Welch
Born1869
Bournemouth
Died1958
Known forEquine artist

Lucy Kemp-Welch (1869–1958) was a British painter who specialized in painting working horses. She is best known for her illustrations to the 1915 edition of Anna Sewell's Black Beauty. The Lucy Kemp-Welch estate has been represented by Messum's Fine Art since 1975.

Biography

Lucy Kemp-Welch was born in Bournemouth, showing an early excellence in art, exhibiting for the first time when she was 14 years old, and moving to Bushey to study at Hubert von Herkomer’s art school at the age of 19. Kemp-Welch believed in painting out of doors, and made numerous quick oil sketches. As one of Herkomer's best and most favoured students, she was able to set up her own studio, in an old former inn known as 'Kingsley'. She took over the direction of the School after Herkomer in 1905 and ran it until 1926, when she spent several summers following Sanger's Circus, recording the horses.

She resided in Bushey, Hertfordshire for most of her life and a major collection of her works is in Bushey Museum. They include very large paintings of wild ponies on Exmoor, galloping polo ponies, the last horse-launched lifeboat being pulled into a boiling sea, heavy working horses pulling felled timber and hard-working farm horses trudging home at the end of the day. Her interest in equine subjects extended to the use of horses in war, and she painted two Boer War scenes, 'In Sight': Lord Dundonald's dash on Ladysmith (Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter), and Sons of the City (private collection). During World War I, she exhibited Big Guns to the Front (National Museum of Wales, Cardiff), and The Leaders of a Heavy Gun Team (Royal Artillery Institution).

As well as pictures of horses, she painted other animals, flowers, and landscapes. Colt-Hunting in the New Forest (1897) became her best-known picture after being purchased for the Chantrey Collection for 500 guineas. It is in the Tate Gallery.

References

  • Harrington, P. (1993). British artists and war: The face of battle in paintings and prints 1700-1914. London: Greenhill. ISBN 1-85367-157-6
  • Messum, D. (1976). Life and Work of Lucy Kemp-Welch. London: Antique Collectors Club. ISBN 090202843X
  • Wortley, L. (1996). Lucy Kemp-Welch, 1869-1958: The Spirit of the Horse. London: Antique Collectors Club. ISBN 1851492526

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