Lucy Kemp-Welch launched her career as an animal painter while in her twenties, and painted this work not much later when she took over the running of the art school where she had studied. Operating from behind “a very interesting house in the old High Street” in Bushey village near London, she became the first woman principal of a British art school to teach both male and female students. Her own studio, where she made this sun-drenched painting of a horse and foal, was built in a paddock where she kept a couple of New Forest ponies, and its tall glass annexe and grass floor allowed her to work from her animal models regardless of the weather. Kemp-Welch became the most famous horse painter of her day.

Ship Nails and Tail Feathers, 10 June – 22 October 2023