Over the course of a long and very successful career spanning the first half of the 20th century, Lucy Kemp-Welch established herself as one of the leading equestrian painters at work in the UK and one of the country's best-known women artists. David Boyd Haycock's new, extensively illustrated biography of Kemp-Welch brings this remarkable artist and her work back into sharp focus.  

Born in 1869, Kemp-Welch first came to the art establishment's attention in 1897 when her immense painting, Colt Hunting in the New Forest , caused a sensation at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition; the work was bought for the Nation by the Chantry Bequest in the year of exhibition. In 1915, she illustrated Anna Sewell's Black Beauty , and was commissioned to paint images for the Government during the First World War. Later, the mural Women's Work in the Great War , was placed in the Royal Exchange in London, where it remains to this day.

Respected art writer and curator Boyd-Haycock shines new light on Kemp-Welch's life, writing from a 21st-century perspective and reflecting on her as a female painter in a male-dominated environment. Alongside Kemp-Welch's paintings, the book will feature exclusive period photographs of the artist herself, shown at work and in her studio.

"Best known for her Black Beauty illustrations, Lucy Kemp-Welch was a renowned member of the London fine arts community. Her works depict equine subjects of a bygone era."