Equestrian Painter Lucy Kemp-Welch (1869 -1958)

Best known for her illustrations of the book, “ Black Beauty”, a story about the life of a horse and the abuse it suffered, it is maybe not so well known that the artist Lucy Kemp – Welch spent her life creating powerful and heartfelt images of horses on a grand scale, which brought her success at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries but not the fame she deserved. 

In this talk Art historian Catherine Wallace includes the wide range of settings for these equestrian paintings and Kemp-Welch’s use of various techniques. Whether her subjects were at work ploughing the fields or hauling timber, being used to launch lifeboats, or pull guns and charge at the enemy on the battlefields, Kemp -Welch  painted horses on a scale and in a way that competed with and surpassed many of her male rivals.  Wallace looks at the challenges Kemp – Welch frequently faced as a female artist in an a traditionally male dominated subject area of art and compares their works.  This lecture also includes the paintings by some of the students taught by Kemp Welch when she ran the Bushey School of Art from 1906 – 1926 as well as  her  later paintings depicting the circus and race horses.

One of a series of 6 monthly lectures by Catherine Wallace. Check out the talks tab on our website for information on the other lectures.

Buy a full-price ticket to all 6 lectures by Catherine Wallace (not including Art of War: Artists of the Second World War) and receive a £1.40 discount on each ticket. The tickets must be bought in the same transaction for this discount to be applied. 

The Equestrian Painter Lucy Kemp-Welch (1869 -1958): From Black Beauty to War Horses

Thursday 30th October 6.00pm - 7:00pm

Cost: £13/£10

A £1 Poly Fund payment is added to each ticket sold. A 50p booking fee is also applied per ticket for online and telephone transactions.