Peter Biegel (1913-1987)- Fox Hunting - Oil on Canvas P3339

A very fine example of the British sporting painter Peter Biegel's work, in a very elegant frame, which has alas sustained some damage. The painting is in excellent condition.

Canvas measures 20" high x 30" and the frame is 26" x 36 1/2".

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Peter Biegel was, during his lifetime, regularly called 'the best painter of the horse today', focusing his activity on the greatest race horses of his time and hunting and racing action pictures.

He was born at Croxley Green on April 22, 1913 into an artistic family.  One of his ancestors was Frederick Sang, a noted artist and architect in London in the 1850s.  His family members were also horsemen, and his great-grandfather, an Irishman, was killed in a steeplechase at the age of twenty-one; his father was Dutch and was also a keen horseman, known as the 'Flying Dutchman' in the hunting field.

He was educated at Downside, and then went into his father's business in the city.  After five years he decided to study art seriously and in 1938 became a student of Lucy Kemp-Welch at her school in Bushey.  His studies were soon interrupted by the Second World War and he obtained a TA commission in the Wilshire Regiment.  He was invalided back from Normandy in 1944, and when fit again was sent to Northern Ireland as a claims officer.

He then spent two terms at Bournemouth School of Art studying figure drawing, though was really most interested in sporting art, so a chance meeting with Lionel Edwards on a train was the most fortunate thing that could happen to him.  He subsequently spent a year studying with Edwards at his studio near Salisbury and became his only pupil.

In 1950 Peter Biegel had his first exhibition with the Rowland Ward Gallery and one painting 'The Winter Game' was accepted by the Royal Academy.  The following year he had twenty of his paintings shown at the Festival of Britain Exhibition.

Sources include:

http://www.blondesfineart.com/peter-biegel-artist/

http://www.crossgategallery.com/artist/peterbiegel.html