A painting by equine artist Lucy Kemp-Welch (1869-1958) sold for four times its top guide at Bellmans (20% buyer’s premium).
Shire horses, pictured top right, a signed 19in x 2ft 5in (48 x 74cm) oil on canvas, was included in the saleroom’s May 9 auction in Sussex. Estimated at £2000-3000, it went on to fetch £12,000. A specialist in painting working horses, of which this was a fine example, Kemp-Welch also depicted horses in military service during the First World War and, most famously, provided illustrations for the 1915 edition of Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty.
According to Art Sales Index, her record still stands at the £75,000 paid in 1988 at Duke’s of Dorchester for her large 1937 canvas, The Lumber Team.