Lionel Edwards (9 November 1878 – 13 April 1966) was a British artist who specialised in painting horses and other aspects of British country life. He is best known for his hunting scenes but also painted pictures of horse racing, shooting and fishing. He provided illustrations for Country Life, The Sphere, The Graphic and numerous books.
Biography
The son of a doctor, Edwards grew up at Benarth, a small estate in
Conwy, North
Wales.
His father, from whom he acquired his love of
fox hunting, died when he was seven. From an early age, he showed a talent for drawing horses, an artistic trait which may have come from his maternal grandmother, who was a pupil of George Romney. It seemed he was heading for an
British Army career until it became apparent that his talents did not lie in that direction,
[ Jane Badger Books: Lionel Edwards, RI] so his mother allowed him to study art in
London, first with A.S. Cope and later at the Heatherley School of Fine Art and Frank Calderon's School of Animal Painting.
[ AskART: Lionel Dalhousie Robertson Edwards] He became the youngest member of the London Sketch Club at the age of nineteen. In 1905, he married Ethel Wells and the couple moved out of London to
Radley, in
Oxfordshire, and later to
Worcestershire, before moving back to Benarth. They both were enthusiastic fox hunters: during his life, Edwards hunted with almost every pack in the country.
On the outbreak of the Great War, he volunteered as a Remount Purchasing Officer along with his contemporaries, Cecil Aldin and Sir Alfred Munnings. On being demobilised, he and his family moved to West Tytherley, near Salisbury, where he lived for the rest of his life.
His artistic output was remarkable: he wrote almost 30 books and illustrated many more, including editions of Black Beauty, Lorna Doone and The Black Arrow,[ Books and Writers: Lionel Dalhousie Robertson Edwards ] in addition to numerous private commissions. He became a member of the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art in 1926 and the Royal Institute in 1927.[ John Noott Galleries] His favorite medium was watercolours,[ The Horse and Hound in Art: Lionel Edwards RI, RCA] His work was also part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics, the 1932 Summer Olympics, and the 1948 Summer Olympics.
He worked to the end of his life, dying from a stroke at his home on 13 April 1966.
Publications
As author/illustrator
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Hunting Countries (1925)
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The Passing Seasons (1927)
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Hunting and Stalking Deer (1927) - with H.F. Wallace
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My Hunting Sketchbook: Vol 1 (1928)
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Huntsmen Past & Present (1929)
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My Scottish Sketchbook (1929)
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My Hunting Sketchbook: Vol 2 (1930)
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The Wiles of the Fox (1932)
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Famous Foxhunters (1932)
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Sketches in Stable and Kennel (1933)
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A Leicestershire Sketchbook (1935)
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Hunting Problems (1936)
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A Sportsman's Bag (1938)
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Seen from the Saddle (1937)
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Horses and Ponies (1938)
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My Irish Sketch Book (1938)
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The Lighter Side of Sport (1940)
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Scarlet and Corduroy (1941)
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Our Food from Farm to Table (1943)
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Our Horses (1945)
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Reminiscences of a Sporting Artist (1947)
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My First Horse (1947)
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Our Cattle (1948)
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Getting to Know Your Pony (1948)
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The Fox (1949)
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Beasts of the Chase (1950)
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Thy Servant the Horse (1952)
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Sportsman's Sketchbook (1953)
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Whitbread Dog Calendar (1966) - with Peter Biegel
As illustrator
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Tower, Charles (1913) The Moselle
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Ogilvie, Will H. (1922) Galloping Shoes: Hunting and polo poems
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Ogilvie, Will H. (1923) Scattered scarlet
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Ogilvie, Will H. (1925) Over The Grass
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Muriel Wace (Muriel Wace)(1929) Muriel Wace
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Muriel Wace (Muriel Wace)(1932) Muriel Wace
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Fawcett, William (1934) Thoroughbred and Hunter
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Lyle, Robert (1934) Brown Jack
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Street, A.G (1936) Moonraking
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Flint, Mark (1938) Grig the Greyhound
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Winstone, Daphne (1945) Flame
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Sewell, Anna (1946) Black Beauty
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Morris, Pamela Macgregor (1947) Topper
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Herald, Kathleen (K.M. Peyton)(1949) The Mandrake
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Curling, B.W.R. (1951) British Racecourses
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Blackmore, R.D. (1954) Lorna Doone
