Lucy Kemp-Welch

Infobox Artist
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name = Lucy Kemp-Welch


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birthdate = 1869
location = Bournemouth
deathdate = 1958
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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". She was born in Bournemouth, showing an early excellence in art - exhibiting for the first time when she was 14 years old - and when she was 19 years old, she moved to Bushey to study at Hubert von Herkomer’s art school.

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 lifebost 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. 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

*Messum, D. (1976). "Life and Work of Lucy Kemp-Welch". London: Antique Collectors Club. ISBN-10: 090202843X
*Wortley, L. (1996). "Lucy Kemp-Welch, 1869-1958: The Spirit of the Horse". London: Antique Collectors Club. ISBN-10: 1851492526