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Over the course of a long and very successful career spanning the first half of the 20th century, Lucy Kemp-Welch established herself as one of the leading equestrian painters at work in the UK and one of the country's best-known women artists. David Boyd Haycock's new, extensively illustrated biography of Kemp-Welch brings this remarkable artist and her work back into sharp focus.
Born in 1869, Kemp-Welch first came to the art establishment's attention in 1897 when her immense painting, Colt Hunting in the New Forest, caused a sensation at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition; the work was bought for the Nation by the Chantry Bequest in the year of exhibition. In 1915, she illustrated Anna Sewell's Black Beauty, and was commissioned to paint images for the Government during the First World War. Later, the mural Women's Work in the Great War, was placed in the Royal Exchange in London, where it remains to this day.
Respected art writer and curator Boyd-Haycock shines new light on Kemp-Welch's life, writing from a 21st-century perspective and reflecting on her as a female painter in a male-dominated environment. Alongside Kemp-Welch's paintings, the book will feature exclusive period photographs of the artist herself, shown at work and in her studio.
List of contents
Foreword by Sir John Kemp-Welch 7Introduction by David Messum 9Preface 11Chapter 1 Origins 21Chapter 2 The Herkomer School 43Chapter 3 Colt Hunting 61Chapter 4 Love and Life 87Chapter 5 In Open Country 105Chapter 6 Serious Understanding 123Chapter 7 War 139Chapter 8 Days of Crowded Life 173Epilogue 201Interview with Lucy Kemp-Welch 1910 205Endnotes 210Bibliography 219List of Works 220Index 221Acknowledgements 224
About the author
Dr David Boyd Haycock is a freelance author and curator, specialising in 20th-century British art. He is the author of a number of highly successful books, including
Paul Nash (Tate Publishing, 2001/2016) and
A Crisis of Brilliance: Five Young British Artists and the Great War (Old Street Publishing, 2009), short-listed by the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain in 2010 as Best Work of Non-Fiction. As well as having curated exhibitions at Dulwich Picture Gallery, Poole Museum and Salisbury Museum, he has also recently completed a new biography of the Welsh artist, Augustus John.
Summary
This new biography of equestrian artist Lucy Kemp-Welch by a leading authority on British art shines fresh light on the artist and her work.
Additional text
"Best known for her Black Beauty illustrations, Lucy Kemp-Welch was a renowned member of the London fine arts community. Her works depict equine subjects of a bygone era."
