Lucy Elizabeth Kemp-Welch (20 June 1869 – 27 November 1958) was a British artist and teacher who specialised in painting horses. Though increasingly overlooked after the Second World War, from the late 1890s to the mid 1920s she was one of the country's best-known female artists. As her obituary in ''The Times'' noted, 'Like most artists who came to maturity and were established before the end of the nineteenth century, Lucy Kemp-Welch suffered somewhat in her later reputation from the violent changes in art which followed. In her prime as an animal painter she held a position in this country comparable to that of Rosa Bonheur in France, and the only British woman artist of her generation who was more talked about was Lady Elizabeth Butler, painter of “The Roll Call.”' Her reputation has since revived, and she is best known today for her large paintings of wild and working horses in the New Forest, and those in military service which she produced during the First World War, as well as for her illustrations to the 1915 edition of Anna Sewell's novel '' Black Beauty''.

Biography

Early life

Lucy Kemp-Welch was born in

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

, the first child of solicitor Edwin Buckland Kemp-Welch. She showed an early excellence in art and exhibited for the first time when she was 14 years old. After attending a local art school, in 1891 she and her younger sister Edith moved to Bushey to study at Hubert von Herkomer’s art school. 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'. In 1905 Kemp-Welch took over the Herkomer School, and ran it until 1926, first as the Bushey School of Painting and then, after relocating it to premises in the garden of her own home, as the Kemp-Welch School of Animal Painting. After 1928 the school was run by Kemp-Welch's former assistant Marguerite Frobisher as the Frobisher School of Art. While still a student Kemp-Welch had a painting, ''Gypsy Drovers taking Horses to a Fair'' shown at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

in 1895. Kemp-Welch received further public recognition in 1897 when her painting ''Colt-Hunting in the New Forest'' was also shown at the Royal Academy. The painting was purchased by the

Chantrey Bequest Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (7 April 1781 – 25 November 1841) was an English sculptor. He became the leading portrait sculptor in Regency era Britain, producing busts and statues of many notable figures of the time. Chantrey's most notable w ...

for 500 guineas, and is now in the British national collection at the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

. In total, throughout her career Kemp-Welch had 61 paintings displayed at the Royal Academy. In 1902 Kemp-Welch was elected to the

Royal Society of British Artists The Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy. History The RBA commenced with twenty-seven members, and took until 1876 to reach fif ...

alongside

Louise Jopling Louise Jane Jopling (née Goode, previously Romer and later Rowe) (Manchester 16 November 1843 – 19 November 1933) was an English painter of the Victorian era, and one of the most prominent female artists of her generation. Early life Lou ...

, becoming with her the first women to be admitted. In 1914 she became president of the Society of Animal Painters. In 1915 she provided illustrations to an edition of Anna Sewell's '' Black Beauty'' and used Robert Baden-Powell's horse Black Prince as a model. She had previously illustrated ''Round About, A Brighton Coach Office'' by M E King in 1896 and ''The Marking of Mathias'' in 1897. As well as pictures of horses, Kemp-Welch painted other animals, flowers and landscapes. She also painted at least two

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

scenes, ''In Sight':Lord Dundonald's dash on Ladysmith'', 1901, ( Royal Albert Memorial Museum,

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

), and ''Sons of the City'' (private collection). Both of these featured horses in military action and led to several significant commissions for her during World War One.

World War One

In December 1914, Kemp-Welch was engaged by the British Parliamentary Recruiting Committee to paint the artwork for the famous army recruitment poster, ''Forward! Forward to Victory Enlist Now'' which she signed, 'L.K.W 1914.' During World War One women were employed at Army Remount Depots in training and preparing horses for military service. Kemp-Welch was commissioned by the Women's Work Section of the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

to paint a scene at the largest such depot, one staffed entirely by women, at Russley Park in Wiltshire. The Museum authorities were unhappy with the painting, ''The Ladies Army Remount Depot, Russley Park, Wiltshire'' which Kemp-Welch first submitted but were aware of a larger and much better composition on the same subject that she had painted and intended to sell to a private client for £1,000. Kemp-Welch agreed that the second painting, ''The Straw-Ride- Russley Park, Remount Depot Wiltshire'' was the better of the two and agreed to sell it to the IWM to forefill her commission. However she was unable to agree a fee with the Women's Work Section and after protracted discussions, donated it free of charge to the Museum. In 1916 Kemp-Welch sought and was given permission to visit the

Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of t ...

camp at Bulford on

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wi ...

. The officer in command of the camp allowed Kemp-Welch to set up an easel while eight batteries of horse artillery were continually ridden towards her so she could sketch the horse teams in movement at close quarters. These sketches resulted in two large works, ''The Leaders of a Heavy Gun Team'', now in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

Institution, and ''Forward the Guns''. These paintings were shown at the Royal Academy in 1917 and ''Forward the Guns'' was purchased by the Chantrey Bequest for the Tate. Although popular images at the time, these painting are not without their critics as they provided a heroic view of warfare but one at odds with the reduced role of horse artillery in an increasingly mechanised conflict. As well as Bulford Camp, Kemp-Welch also made studies at several other Royal Artillery camps, notably several in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

near

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

. The resulting pictures included ''Big Guns to the Front'', an image of shire horses pulling guns through a snowy landscape, which was shown to great acclaim at the Royal Academy in 1918 and was purchased for the National Museum of Wales in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

in 1921.

Later life

In 1924, for the Royal Exchange, Kemp-Welch designed and completed a large panel commemorating the work of women during World War One. From 1926 onwards she focussed on depicting scenes of gypsy and circus life and spent several summers following Sanger's Circus, recording the horses. Kemp-Welch resided in Bushey, Hertfordshire for most of her life, never marrying. A major collection of her works is held by

Bushey Museum Bushey Museum is in Bushey, Hertfordshire. It was officially opened as a volunteer-run museum in October 1993, having achieved Full Registration with the Museums and Galleries Commission. In the week prior to opening, the Museum won joint fir ...

. They include very large paintings of wild ponies on Exmoor, galloping polo ponies, the last horse-launched lifeboat 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. The Lucy Kemp-Welch estate has been represented by Messum's Fine Art since 1975.

Family

Lucy Kemp-Welch's younger sister Edith, who died in 1941, was also an artist as was her cousin

Margaret Kemp-Welch Margaret Drury Kemp-Welch (1874 – 15 January 1968) was a British painter and printmaker, mostly of landscape and portraits. She was also a teacher. Lucy's live in companion, Marguerite Frobisher, was buried with her when she died in 1974.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kemp-Welch, Lucy 1869 births 1958 deaths 19th-century English women artists 19th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists 20th-century English painters English women painters Equine artists Artists from Bournemouth People from Bushey Sibling artists World War I artists