Biographies

Lucy Kemp-Welch was born in Bournemouth, the daughter of Edwin Bueldand Kemp-Welch. Her ability in art showed early, and she exhibited for the first time when aged fourteen. At the age of nineteen she moved to Bushey in Hertfordshire, to study at Hubert von Herkomer’s art school. She has left a vivid record of Herkomer’s rather extreme behaviour, his irascibility, sarcasm, and severity. Happily she also records another facet of his character–his unstinting encouragement of what he regarded as promising work. She believed in painting out of doors and made numerous oil sketches before completing a large painting.

She took over the direction of Herkomer’s school from 1905-1926. She specialized in painting horses but she also painted other animals, flowers, and landscapes. Four works were exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1895 and 1904. Colt Hunting in the New Forest (1897) became her best known work. It is currently in the Tate Gallery.