Lucy Elizabeth Kemp Welch Specialized in animalistic genre .
| Lucy Camp Welch | |
|---|---|
| English Lucy Kemp-Welch | |
 Photo from the collection of George Grantham Bane. Library of Congress | |
| Birth name | Lucy Elizabeth Camp Welch |
| Date of Birth | June 20, 1869 |
| Place of Birth | Bournemouth , Dorset , UK |
| Date of death | November 27, 1958 (89 years old) |
| Place of death | Watford , Hertfordshire , UK |
| Nationality |  Great Britain |
| Genre | artist , teacher |
| Study | Herkomer School |
| Style | animalism |
She was widely known for her paintings of in military service, which she painted during the First World War , as well as illustrations for the publication of Anna Sewell in 1915 [1] .
The early years
Born in Bournemouth on June 20, 1869. A talent for drawing appeared in her at the age of fourteen. Received primary art education at the Bournemouth School of Art. In 1891, together with her younger sister Edith, she moved to , where both entered the Hubert von Herkomer art school. Being one of the best and most beloved student of Hercomer, she founded her own studio in the building of the former Kingsley Hotel. In 1905, Camp Welch took over the management of the Herkomer school. She headed it until 1926, first under the name of the School of Painting in Bushes, then, she transferred it to her house under the name of the Camp Welch School of Animal Painting. After 1928, the school was transferred to the former assistant to the artist - Marguerite Forbisher, and the institution became known as the Forbisher School of Art [2] .
During her training in painting, Camp Welch painted the painting "Gypsy Gurtiers Drive Horses to the Fair." The canvas was first introduced at the Royal Academy in 1895 [2] . In 1897, the painting “Equestrian Hunting in the New Forest”, which was also presented at the Royal Academy, brought widespread fame to the artist. A canvas for five hundred guineas acquired the Chantry Foundation. Now it is stored in the collection of the British gallery Tate [3] [4] .
In 1914, Camp Welch became president of the Society of Animal Artists [2] . In 1915, she created illustrations for the publication of Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. As a model, the artist used the Black Princess - the horse of Lord Robert Baden-Powell [2] . In addition to horses, Camp Welch painted other animals, as well as flowers and landscapes. She also painted two paintings dedicated to the Boer War - “In sight. Lord Dandonald shoots on horseback at Ladysmith ”(1901), is kept in the collection of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, and“ Sons of the City ”, now in a private collection. In both paintings, horses were depicted while participating in hostilities. Therefore, during the First World War, the artist received a number of significant orders.
World War I
In December 1914, the British Parliamentary Recruitment Committee ordered Camp Welch a campaign poster for recruitment into the army. She painted the picture “Go! Go to the list of winners. Now ” [5] .
During World War I, women worked in army cavalry units and trained horses for military service. The women's working section of the Imperial Museum of the First World War commissioned Camp Welch a picture of the largest such unit, fully occupied by women, in Russley Park in Wiltshire [6] . The management of the museum was dissatisfied with the painting “Ladies of the Army Equestrian Unit. Russley Park, Wiltshire ", learning about a larger canvas on the same topic that she was going to sell to a private client for a thousand pounds. Camp Welch agreed that the second picture, “Riding on the straw in Russley Park. The equestrian unit, Wiltshire, was better than the first and agreed to sell it to the museum. However, she was unable to agree on payment with the Women's Working Section, and, after lengthy negotiations, donated the painting to the museum [7] [8] .
In 1916, Camp Welch received permission to visit the Royal Field Artillery Camp at Bulford on the Salisbury Plain. The camp commander allowed the artist to sketch. To this end, Camp Welch had eight horse artillery battalions. She created sketches of horses in motion in the immediate vicinity, formed the basis of two large canvases: “The Heads of the Heavy Cannon Team” at the Royal Artillery Institute and “Horse Attack” [9] [10] . These paintings were shown at the Royal Academy in 1917. The latter was acquired by the Chantry Foundation for the Tate British National Gallery. Despite its popularity, the picture was criticized for the heroization of the war [9] .
In addition to the Bulford camp, Camp Welch painted from life in other royal artillery camps, especially in Hampshire, near Winchester. The last work of the artist, dedicated to the First World War, was the painting "Big Guns to the Front", depicting Shire horses pulling weapons through a snowy landscape. The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1918 and was recognized by contemporaries. In 1921, the canvas was purchased for the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff [11] .
Later years
In 1924, Camp Welch created a large panel for the Royal Exchange dedicated to the work of women during the First World War [12] . Since 1926, she focused on depicting scenes of gypsy and circus life and spent several years following the Zanger Circus and drawing horses [13] .
The artist spent most of her life in Bushes, in Hertfordshire. The museum of this town has a large collection of her works. They include very large paintings with images of horses - wild Exmoor ponies , polo ponies, heavy trucks. Since 1975, Camp Welch paintings have been featured in the Messum Art Gallery.
Her younger sister Edith, who died in 1941, was also an artist [14] . Like her older sister, she wrote a poster for the British Armed Forces - an image of Britain with the slogan "Remember Scarborough" [15] .
Notes
- ↑ Tate. Artist biography Lucy Kemp-Welch . Tate . Date of treatment March 5, 2018.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 David Buckman. Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L. - Art Dictionaries Ltd, 1998.
- ↑ Alicia Foster. Tate Women Artists. - Tate Publishing, 2004.
- ↑ Tate. Catalog entry for Colt hunting in the New Forest . Tate . Date of treatment July 22, 2014.
- ↑ Nigel Steel (Introduction). Posters of the First World War. - Imperial War Museum, 2014.
- ↑ Kathleen Palmer. Women War Artists. - Tate Publishing / Imperial War Museum, 2011.
- ↑ Merion Harries & Susie Harries. The War Artists, British Official War Art of the Twentieth Century. - Michael Joseph, The Imperial War Museum & the Tate Gallery, 1983.
- ↑ Catherine Speck. Beyond the Battlefield, Women Artists of Two World Wars. - Reaktion Books, 2014.
- ↑ 1 2 Richard Cork. A Bitter Truth - Avant Garde Art and the Great War. - Yale University Press & The Barbican Art Gallery, 1994.
- ↑ Tate. Catalog entry for Forward the Horses . Tate . Date of treatment July 22, 2014.
- ↑ National Museum Wales. Big Guns to the Front . Art Collections Online . Date of treatment January 1, 2016.
- ↑ Cathy Hartley (Development Editor). A Historical Dictionary of British Women. - Europa Publications, 2003.
- ↑ Frazer Ansell. Bushey artist Lucy Kemp-Welch's painting sells for more than £ 20,000 . Watford Observer (January 22, 2015). Date of treatment January 1, 2016.
- ↑ Brian Stewart & Mervyn Cutten. The Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain up to 1920. - Antique Collectors' Club, 1997.
- ↑ Imperial War Museum. Remember Scarborough . Imperial War Museum . Date of treatment December 31, 2015.
Links
- Books by Kemp-Welch, Lucy . www.gutenberg.org. - Project Gutenberg. Date of treatment November 11, 2017. (English)
- Lucy Elizabeth Kemp-Welch (1869-1958) . www.artuk.org. - Art UK. Date of treatment November 11, 2017. (English)