John Rattenbury Skeaping 1901-1980. Into The Final Furlong,1965.pastel

John Rattenbury Skeaping. 
English ( b.1901 - d.1980 ).
Into the Final Furlong, 1965.
Pastel on Coloured Paper. Signed & Dated 1965.
Image size 18.9 inches x 27.6 inches ( 48cm x 70cm ).
Frame size 31.9 inches x 41.1 inches ( 81cm x 104.5cm ).

Available for sale from Big Sky Fine Art in the English county of Dorset, this original pastel on paper drawing by John Rattenbury Skeaping dated 1965.
The artwork is presented and supplied in its original frame that has been painted in chalk paint and its original mount (which is shown in these photographs) and original premium anti-reflective glass with 92% UV protection (ARTGLASS AR92™).
This vintage pastel drawing is in very good condition, commensurate with its age. It wants for nothing and is supplied ready to hang and display.
The artwork is signed and dated lower left.

Regarded as the leading equine sculptor of the twentieth century, John Rattenbury Skeaping was also a highly regarded racehorse artist. As a child he showed an early aptitude for art and was educated from the age of 13 at the Blackheath School of Art, Goldsmiths College, the Central School of Arts & Crafts and finally the Royal Academy Schools, where he won the Royal Academy Gold Medal and travelling scholarship. He then taught in Newcastle.

In 1924 Skeaping 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 and worked together for a while, putting on a joint exhibition in Glasgow and London in 1928 that established them in the forefront of British Sculpture.

During the Second World War Skeaping served in the Royal Intelligence Corps as an official war artist before transferring to the SAS in North Africa. After the war he and his second wife lived in Devon for a while before returning to London where he spent a period teaching at the Royal College of Art. He then went to Mexico for over a year, living amongst the primitive Indians and learning how to make their traditional pottery.

In 1950 Skeaping 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. He exhibited extensively, and wrote and illustrated four books, including his autobiography, Drawn from Life.

Skeaping was associated with the famous Ackermann firm who offered sporting and racing art. Most of his equestrian works are from the 1960s and 1970s and his subjects covered racehorses, harness horses, flat racers and steeplechasers. He also produced some fine commissioned portraits of famous horses of the day. Today John Skeaping’s sculpture and paintings are in many private and museum collections, including the Tate, the British Museum, and the Royal Academy.

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