Biographies

Lowes Dalbiac Luard (1872 – 1940) A landscape, figure, and animal painter, he has come down to us as a specialist in the anatomy of the horse and the best horse painter after Stubbs. His three books on the anatomy of the horse are often reprinted. Here is a blurb for one of them: This easy-to-read text explains the horse as a machine designed for movement. Using different colors in his drawings, the author not only describes with clarity the horse’s skeleton and the functions of various muscles, but also creates images that have the power to suggest movement and stress. More than 75 illustrations include accurate diagrams and color illustrations of the horse’s anatomy, as well as meticulously rendered sketches of the entire animal. Of value to students and teachers of art, this book will also appeal to horse lovers who want a deeper understanding — without having to examine the anatomical complexities of the subject — of why this animal is capable of moving with such grace and speed. From the National Sporting Library’s sketch of the artist Wesley Dennis: But tiring of commercial art, Dennis took the step to further his career in equestrian art. He wrote to renowned animal and landscape painter Lowes Dalbiac Luard, of France, asking for tutelage. Luard replied that he did not teach but would help him anyway. Dennis quit his job immediately and went to France. Luard turned out to be a tough taskmaster, grilling Dennis to learn to draw from memory and with accuracy. He took Dennis to local butcher shops since the French included horsemeat on the menu. They spent hours studying the anatomy of horses, especially the muscles — how they were attached and what they were used for. Thus, combining his love and knowledge of horses–their personalities, their graceful movement, their zest for life–with the finely honed skills from France, Dennis’s work stepped into a realm of its own with snapshot accuracy of movement and expression of the animals’ physique and personality. A quotation from Luard: “Art cannot use movement to represent movement. It has to render it in fixed and unchanging materials in which the painter or the sculptor works, and in which indeed lies his strength. For the artist’s purpose is not to reconstruct nature, but to communicate his own emotion and interest to others.”