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Lot Essay
Lucy Kemp-Welch was born in Bournemouth on 20 June 1869, the daughter of Edward Kemp-Welch, a successful solicitor. Starting drawing as a child, particularly on rambles with her father in the New Forest (where she was fascinated by the wild ponies), she was exhibiting her pictures locally by the age of fourteen. In 1895 the young artist exhibited at the Royal Academy, and in 1897 her picture Colt hunting in the New Forest was bought by the Chantrey Bequest for the Tate Gallery.
An illustrious career followed, where Kemp-Welch became a close friend and mentor of Edward Seago, and a founder member of the Society of Animal Painters in 1914 with Sir Alfred Munnings and Lionel Edwards, serving as the organisations first President.
Lot 125 is a fine example of Kemp-Welch's highly competent, free hand, and clearly illustrates why she has become one of the 20th Century's most collectable and foremost equestrian artists. The horses are vibrant and lifelike, and communicate a deep understanding of animals, while her use of colour and composition interplays with light and shadow to create movement, character and animation.
Appearing on the market for the first time, the present lot was commissioned by Emma Octavia Waddingham and given as a birthday present to her friend and companion Annie Muriel Stephenson-Peach in 1928, when Kemp-Welch would have been working and travelling in Lord John Sanger's Circus.
As well as being a devoted philanthropist (setting up a hospital for shell-shocked soldiers in Streatham), Mrs Waddingham did extensive work for the Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society. One of her most significant achievements was successfully campaigning for the instillation of water-troughs in the streets of London, for carriage and work-horses to drink out of.
An illustrious career followed, where Kemp-Welch became a close friend and mentor of Edward Seago, and a founder member of the Society of Animal Painters in 1914 with Sir Alfred Munnings and Lionel Edwards, serving as the organisations first President.
Lot 125 is a fine example of Kemp-Welch's highly competent, free hand, and clearly illustrates why she has become one of the 20th Century's most collectable and foremost equestrian artists. The horses are vibrant and lifelike, and communicate a deep understanding of animals, while her use of colour and composition interplays with light and shadow to create movement, character and animation.
Appearing on the market for the first time, the present lot was commissioned by Emma Octavia Waddingham and given as a birthday present to her friend and companion Annie Muriel Stephenson-Peach in 1928, when Kemp-Welch would have been working and travelling in Lord John Sanger's Circus.
As well as being a devoted philanthropist (setting up a hospital for shell-shocked soldiers in Streatham), Mrs Waddingham did extensive work for the Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society. One of her most significant achievements was successfully campaigning for the instillation of water-troughs in the streets of London, for carriage and work-horses to drink out of.