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Lucy Kemp WelchWorking HorseEarly 20th Century
Early 20th Century
$3,419.42
£2,500
€2,939.41
CA$4,759.66
A$5,108.19
CHF 2,738.19
MX$61,474.72
NOK 34,524.54
SEK 31,481.60
DKK 21,957.41
About the Item
Lucy Kemp Welch 1869-1958 was an English artist and teacher who specialised in the painting of horses. From the 1890''s until the 1920's she was the most famous painter of horses in the UK, producing art of war and working horses during the first World War. She studied art at Hubert Von Herkomer's School which she later took over the running of the school as the best female artist, the school changed names to the Bushey ( Hertfordshire ) School where she continued to teach the painting of animals. This horse portrait is a working horse and either one that pulled farm machinery or gun carriages during WW1, it is known as a working horse whichever line of activity in which it was engaged . This picture was catalogued as unsigned but was catalogued as a definite work of Lucy Kemp Welch by the former head of pictures at Bonhams London. During the career of Lucy Kemp Welch she exhibited over 60 times at the Royal Academy, her works are in several major collections, the Tate Gallery, the Bushey Museum and the Imperial War Museum London. After the war she continued to draw and paint equestrian subjects, during the summer months she would attend Sangers Circus where the horses were displayed in a variety of events as entertainment for the public. This picture remains unsigned, however it was earlier catalogued by the former head of paintings of Bonhams , London.
I have included a further biography for your interest.
Lucy Kemp-Welch occupies a significant position within the tradition of British realist painting at the turn of the twentieth century and is widely regarded as one of the foremost animal painters of her generation. Born in Bournemouth in 1869, she was the daughter of the marine painter Thomas Kemp-Welch, whose professional practice provided her with early technical grounding and an understanding of academic discipline. This formative environment contributed to her lifelong emphasis on close observation, anatomical precision, and compositional rigour.
Kemp-Welch entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1895, where she received a conventional academic training under leading figures including Sir George Clausen and John Singer Sargent. Her exceptional draughtsmanship and command of form were recognised in 1898 when she was awarded the Turner Gold Medal, the Royal Academy’s highest student distinction, for a composition depicting horses engaged in labour. This achievement was particularly noteworthy within the context of the institutional limitations placed upon women artists in late nineteenth-century Britain and marked her emergence as a painter of considerable professional promise.
Throughout her career, Kemp-Welch specialised in the depiction of horses and other working animals, subjects she approached with a resolutely unsentimental realism. Her paintings are characterised by a sober, controlled palette, assured handling of paint, and an acute sensitivity to mass, musculature, and movement. Rejecting anecdotal or decorative conventions often associated with animal painting, she aligned herself instead with a realist ethos grounded in labour and endurance. Her work demonstrates an awareness of French realist precedents—most notably Rosa Bonheur—yet remains distinct in its emphasis on restraint, physicality, and the moral gravity of work, qualities that situate her firmly within a British realist tradition.
The First World War marked a significant phase in Kemp-Welch’s career. Commissioned by the Imperial War Museum, she produced a number of works documenting the central role of horses in military logistics and artillery transport. These paintings are notable for their focus on the physical burden borne by animals rather than on heroic or patriotic narratives. In this respect, her war work expands the parameters of British war art by foregrounding non-human subjects and articulating a broader conception of sacrifice and service within modern warfare.
Kemp-Welch exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1899 and showed work at the Paris Salon and other international exhibitions, achieving both critical recognition and institutional patronage during her lifetime. Despite this, her reputation diminished in the mid-twentieth century as modernist aesthetics came to dominate critical discourse and traditional realist practices were marginalised. More recent scholarship has reassessed her oeuvre within the contexts of gender, professionalism, and British realism, leading to a renewed appreciation of her technical achievement and thematic seriousness.
Kemp-Welch died in 1958. Her works are represented in major public collections, including the Tate and the Imperial War Museum, as well as in regional museums across the United Kingdom. She is now recognised as a pivotal figure in British animal painting whose work offers a sustained and rigorous examination of labour, discipline, and the human–animal relationship in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain.
- Creator:Lucy Kemp Welch (1869 - 1958)
- Creation Year:Early 20th Century
- Dimensions:Height: 28 in (71.12 cm)Width: 24 in (60.96 cm)Depth: 2.5 in (6.35 cm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Douglas, GB
- Reference Number:Seller: No. 2431stDibs: LU2373215657832
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