Lucy Elizabeth Kemp-Welch was born at Poole in Dorset on 20 June 1869, where her father Edwin Kemp-Welch was a solicitor in the firm of Watt and Kemp-Welch. Shortly thereafter, the Kemp-Welch family moved to Bournemouth and it was soon observed that Lucy was fond of animals. Her father held to the belief that young ladies should not pursue careers, but prepare themselves for marriage. However, Lucy demonstrated an early aptitude for art and her talent was encouraged by her mother. She exhibited for the first time when she was 14 years old. When she was 19-years old, she moved to Bushey in Hertfordshire to study at Hubert von Herkomer’s art school. In time, she became one of his best and most favoured students. She was able to set up her own studio, in an old former inn known as ‘Kingsley’. She has left behind in her diaries a vivid record of von Herkomer’s strange behaviour, his irascibility, sarcasm, and severity, but also recorded another facet of his character, his unstinting encouragement of what he regarded as promising work. For all his faults, Kemp-Welsh came to regard von Herkomer as her mentor, and when his health started to deteriorate in 1905, she took over the direction of the school and ran it until 1926. She then spent several summers following Sanger’s Circus, recording the horses. Kemp-Welch was the foremost painter of horses of her time, especially of working horses and her work constitutes a record of almost vanished breeds. As well as her equine subjects, Kemp-Welch also produced works featuring other animals, flowers, and landscapes. She exhibited at the RA from 1895 and is also known to have illustrated the books The Making of Matthias (1897) and Pussy and Doggy Tales (1899). Colt-Hunting in the New Forest (1897) became her best-known painting, after being purchased by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest for 500 guineas. It may be found in the collection of the Tate Gallery. She illustrated the 1915 edition of Anna Sewell’s book Black Beauty. Kemp-Welch believed in painting out of doors, and made numerous quick oil sketches. She resided in Bushey, Hertfordshire for most of her life and a major collection of her works is in Bushey Museum. It includes wild ponies running spiritedly across Exmoor; well-groomed polo ponies galloping after the ball; a horse-launched lifeboat being pulled into a boiling sea; the great Hanoverian creams of Sanger’s Circus parading with majestic gait; huge heavy horses pulling felled timber or a circus caravan on the move; hard working farm horses trudging home at the end of the day, their coats glistening in the low evening sun. Not least there is a row of horses of all sizes, colours and disposition, from thoroughbreds to the lowliest carter’s horse, standing tethered to a rope barrier, patiently, restlessly or with aristocratic air. Her interest in equine subjects extended to the use of horses in war, and she painted two Boer War scenes, In Sight: Lord Dundonald’s Dash on Ladysmith (Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter), and Sons of the City (private collection). During the Great War, she exhibited Big Guns to the Front (National Museum of Wales, Cardiff), and The Leaders of a Heavy Gun Team (Royal Artillery Institution). Kemp-Welch became the first President of the Society of Animal Painters in 1914, a not inconsiderable achievement for a woman at that time. She was a member of the Pastel Society from 1917 and a member of the Royal and British Colonial Society from 1920.  Her work was much admired by the equine painter Alfred Munnings. In 1921 Kemp-Welch exhibited at the Paris Salon, and was awarded a bronze medal. The following year, she was awarded their silver medal. She had a one-man exhibition at the Arlington Gallery in Bond Street in 1938. She died at Watford on 27 November 1958. Kemp-Welch’s works are in many public collections in Britain and in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Her painting Horses Bathing in the Sea may be found in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. Her smallest painting, the size of a postage stamp, was painted for Queen Mary and may be found in the Queen’s Dolls’ House at Windsor Castle. In 1997, the Antique Collectors’ Club published Laura Wortley’s biography Lucy Kemp-Welch 1869-1958: The Spirit of the Horse which drew on her diaries and letters to illustrate her life, times and work.