Juli Kirk (American, born 1957), Hounds on Scent, oil on canvas, 24″ x 36″, signed, dated 2015. Click on any of the images for a larger view.
Through the kind permission of Greg Ladd, owner of the Cross Gate Gallery in Lexington, KY, Foxhunting Life is proud to report, along with a selection of riveting images, on the highly successful third annual Sporting Art Auction at the Keeneland Sales Pavilion held there on November 18, 2015. Racing and shooting sports were also well represented.
Each year, Ladd travels across the United States and Europe to acquire important works worthy of the attention of a discriminating clientele. Eighty-nine percent of all the works offered were sold, and thirty-seven percent sold for more than the high-end estimates. Sir Alfred Munnings’ signed and dated painting of the champion French Thoroughbred, Mon Talisman, brought the top price of $250,500. At the other end of the spectrum, a lovely hunting gouache of a Worcestershire Foxhounds scene sold for just $3,450.
In total, 174 lots were sold, representing fine paintings and sculptures from renowned artists. Each year, a new collection goes on display in the Keeneland Sales Pavilion beginning with the September Yearling Sale and continues through the auction’s November date.
I’ve selected a sampling of paintings for your viewing pleasure. Click on any image for a larger view.
Juli Kirk’s Hounds on Scent (above) sold for $10,350, in excess of the estimated $6,000 – $8,000.
Eric Meade-King (British, 1911-1987), The Worcestershire Hounds at Broadheath, gouache, 14″ x 23″, signed, inscribed “Worcestershire, Broadheath,” dated 1974
The Worcestershire Hounds at Broadheath by Eric Meade-King sold for $3,450, in excess of the estimated $2,000 – $3,000.
My personal favorite of the entire auction is Shrimp, the Groom by Sir Alfred Munnings. The painting represents nearly everything I love about Munning’s work: life and emotion, impressions and expressions, bursting out of bold, slashing strokes of paint. (I say “nearly everything” because the horse itself is missing, only suggested!) This painting fetched $17,250, right in the estimated range, and a bargain (in my dreams).
Sir Alfred Munnings (British, 1878-1959), Shrimp, the Groom, oil on canvas, 14″ x 16-1/2″, signed
Shrimp was Munnings’ most-used model. He appears in many of Munning’s works dressed in scarlet as a huntsman or in gypsy attire as in this painting. The sale catalogue goes on to say, “the two often had a love/hate relationship. Munnings writes about Shrimp often in his autobiography, at one point calling the illiterate, diminutive, wild gypsy boy ‘an indispensable model, an inspiring rogue, an annoying villain’ (Sir Alfred Munnings, *An Artist’s Life,* London, 1950, p. 207). Introduced to Munnings by the Norwich horse trader Drake, Shrimp was the best model Munnings had and posed for him extensively from around 1908 until 1912. Munnings went on to say Shrimp ‘slept under Drake’s caravan and when not wanted he lay on the dusty ground or grass, smoked cigarettes, and played with the lesser dogs, lurchers and children. He was a good bare-back rider and sly as a fox. On my instruction Shrimp had gone to Norwich to a tailor in Dove Street who made clothes for the [gypsy] fraternity, to be measured and fitted for the usual cut of tight cord trousers and black-fronted, sleeve waistcoat — a garment of the past, a Georgian relic…Shrimp, thus attired, with a yellow handkerchief round his neck, was a paintable figure’ (*An Artist’s Life,* p. 211). As can be seen, the young rogue is wearing what Munnings had purchased for him and is often portrayed in these same clothes.”
George Rowlandson (British, 1861-1928), Left Behind, oil on canvas, 24″ x 36″, signed
George Rowlandson’s Left Behind sold for $8,050, near the low end of the estimated selling price. The main story being told is, of course, the horseless rider trying to reclaim his mount, but there are other stories of the field in this interesting hunting scene such as the sympathetic looks of some of the riders, all of whom have been in the same sorry position at one time or another, other riders ignoring his plight entirely, one rider trying to contain his horse and save his own knees through the gate, and the open country in the far distance where all those still happily mounted are headed in pursuit of the pack. The poor man on foot will soon be totally deserted!
Peter Biegel (British, 1913-1989), The Warwickshire Hounds and Master Clarence Webster, oil on canvas, 20″ x 30″, signed, dated 1965
Peter Biegel’s The Warwickshire Hounds and Master Clarence Webster sold for $9,775, a substantial premium over the $4,000 – $6,000 estimated sell price. Clarence Webster was professional huntsman at the Warwickshire for twenty-five years. According to the provenance published in the catalogue, the painting was owned by Major Harold S. Cayzer, MFH of the Warwickshire at the time it was painted. I like to imagine the painting hanging in a prominent place in the major’s home with himself standing before it, proudly pointing out and naming all the hounds and their personalities to interested visitors.
Major Cayzer had invited Peter Biegel to stay with him while he worked on several commissions. According to the sales catalog, “On the way to stay with the Cayzers, Biegel dropped his wife off where she would be staying for the next few days. Unfortunately Mr. and Mrs. Biegel both had matching suitcases and Mrs. Biegel took his by mistake. Peter Biegel didn’t discover the mistake until he was already with the Cayzers and had to wear the same clothes all three days, supposedly sleeping in his wife’s nightgown.”
Major Cayzer’s father, of the same name, was a Master of the Pytchley.
Lionel Edwards (British, 1878-1966), The Heythrop Hunt, watercolor with bodycolor, 16-1/2″ – 23″, signed, inscribed “Heythrop,” dated 1931
The Heythrop Hunt by Lionel Edwards sold for $23,000, just over the estimated price range of $18,000 – $22,000. Since 1835 there have been only fourteen huntsmen at the Heythrop, one of whom, Captain Ronnie Wallace, was particularly well-known in this country until his untimely death in a motor accident. British Prime Minister David Cameron hunted with the Pytchley.
The sales pavilion at Keeneland, where you can pick up a little something to hang.
Keeneland is one of the world’s preeminent marketplaces for Thoroughbred yearlings and breeding stock. Its four annual sales attract buyers from nearly every state in the country and from more than fifty countries across Europe, the Middle East, Central and South America, Australia, Asia, South Africa, Russia and India.
Founded in 1974, Cross Gate Gallery in Lexington, Ky., is a leading source of the world’s finest sporting art. Cross Gate specializes in equine-related art, and its impressive collection ranges from 19th and early 20th century classic works to a wealth of contemporary paintings and sculpture. Cross Gate also is recognized as a premier gallery for contemporary British figurative painting.
Posted February 17, 2016