Available for sale from Big Sky Fine Art; this original gouache and watercolour painting by John Rattenbury Skeaping dated 1970.
The work is presented and supplied in its original frame and mount (which is shown in these photographs) but with a barrier of conservation materials and non-reflective Tru Vue UltraVue® UV70 glass.
Provenance: Direct from the artist’s family having never been displayed or exhibited before.
John Skeaping in regarded as the leading equine sculptor of the twentieth century. He also became a highly regarded racehorse painter in his middle age.
He was born in South Woodford, Essex, England on 9 June 1901. His father was a portrait painter who shared a studio with Cézanne and his mother was a musician. Several other members of his family were also very artistic. He had an unconventional childhood as one of four children, none of whom were sent to school. His father believed in a basic training in the arts and they were therefore taken to exhibitions, concerts, theatre and ballet. For young John, the tandem themes of horses and art emerged and remained with him for the rest of his life.
Aged 13 John Skeaping was already showing an early aptitude, and enrolled at Blackheath School of Art. Then aged 14 he went to Goldsmiths College in the Sculpture School. From there he went to the Central School of Arts & Crafts and then the Royal Academy Schools, where he won the Royal Academy Gold Medal and travelling scholarship. He then taught in Newcastle.
In 1924 he won the Prix de Rome and went to Rome on a three year scholarship. Barbara Hepworth won the second prize and they met in Rome and married in Florence in 1925. They returned to London in 1926 and worked together for a while. Indeed, they put on a joint exhibition in Glasgow and London in 1928 that established them in the forefront of British Sculpture. However, the couple drifted apart artistically and personally and separated in 1931, divorcing two years later.
Skeaping continued modeling and carving, and created several animal pieces for Wedgwood in 1928 of a Sea Lion, Kangaroo, Duiker, Polar Bear, Bison, Tiger, Deer and Antelope groups that are quite stylized and reflect the Art Deco influence of the era. He also did stone carvings of animals during this time.
During the 1930s, Skeaping spent as much time as possible in the countryside with his second wife, whom he married in 1934. They were lent a cottage in Dartmoor, where they stayed for a summer and started to train and race greyhounds.
At the beginning of the Second World War Skeaping served in the Royal Intelligence Corps as an official war artist in Europe before transferring to the SAS in North Africa. However, he began to suffer from nervous stomach trouble and was invalided out just before the end of the war. On his return to civilian life he became disillusioned with London, so went to Devon to live. After a short while though he returned to London though and spent a period teaching at the Royal College of Art. He then went to Mexico for a year and a half, living amongst the primitive Indians and learning how to make their traditional pottery.
In 1950 he returned to England and became Professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art. He remained there until his retirement in 1959 when he moved to the Camargue in France, partly for health reasons. There he studied the wild horses of the Carmargue, and lived for twenty years with his third wife.
Skeaping first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1922; he was elected an Associate there in 1951 and Academician in 1959.
During the late 1940s and into the 1950s, Skeaping was associated with the famous Ackermann firm who offered sporting and racing art. He produced many paintings and drawings of horses during this time. Most of his equestrian works are from the 1960s and 1970s and his subjects covered racehorses, harness horses, flat racers and steeplechasers. He also did some fine commissioned portraits of famous horses of the day including Triple Crown winner Secretariat, Hyperion, Mill Reef, Brigadier Gerard, Chamossaire, and more. He received many commissions during his life, mainly for his horse sculptures.
Between 1960 and 1969, seven of his one man shows were held at Ackermann’s Gallery, and there were retrospective exhibitions at the same venue in 1979, 1981 and 1984. He wrote and illustrated four books, including his autobiography Drawn from Life, which was published in 1977. He died in London on 5 March 1980.
This delightful work is painted with a deceptively light touch. It depicts two racehorses and their riders at the closing section of a race. In the lead is a chestnut horse, with a jockey in white jodhpurs, navy top and a red cap. Edging towards him is a brown horse, with a jockey in white jodhpurs, yellow and purple vest and purple cap. In the background there is an open area of grass with tall hedges beyond. There is a sensation of speed and fluidity and the whole composition is one of grace and ease.