About this lot
Description
§ Lionel Edwards, RI (British, 1878-1966)
A signed and illustrated letter from the artist to a 12-year-old Peter Biegel in response to the latter's request for a sketch, circa 1926 (" May I point out to you that / if one did sketches for everyone / that asked - one / would scarcely have time to sit / down for meals! / all the same, here you are, such as it is. / Yours sincerely / Lionel Edwards")
brown ink on paper
17.5 x 11cm
together with Peter Biegel's personal notes outlining over two pages his first contact and his first meeting with Lionel Edwards (2)
Provenance:
Peter Biegel's studio and thence by descent within the family
In his personal notes, Peter Biegel writes that his first contact with Lionel Edwards was "as a boy at prep school when with all the naïveté of youth I wrote to him, a letter of admiration and asked for a sketch." Biegel then describes his first encounter with Edwards by chance on a train to a medical examination after WWII, calling Edwards his "boy time hero and childhood semi God". On the train journey, Biegel struck up a conversation and showed Edwards some of his works. He subsequently spent a year studying with Edwards at his studio near Salisbury and became his only pupil.
This and the following 22 lots are from the late Peter Biegel's studio.
Born in Croxley Green, Hertfordshire, Peter Biegel (1913-1987) developed an early passion for horses through racing and hunting. As a boy, he had a pony and often rode to hounds. Educated at Downside School, he first began a career working with his father in London as a steel broker. In 1938, his father’s business collapsed and Biegel decided instead to pursue his childhood passion for animal painting by enrolling at Lucy Kemp-Welch’s School at Bushey.
The onset of WWII suspended Biegel’s studies when he served in the Wiltshire Regiment until he was wounded in the leg and returned home. After the war, he resumed his studies and enrolled at the Bournemouth School of Art. Following a chance encounter with his boyhood hero Lionel Edwards, Biegel became his pupil.
In 1948, Biegel finished his apprenticeship and married Theodora Kennett. He went on to have a highly successful career and established himself as one of Britain’s best known sporting artists. In 1950, Biegel had his first exhibition with the Rowland Ward Gallery and one painting The Winter Game was accepted by the Royal Academy. Throughout his life, he was considered ‘the best painter of the horse today’ and by the 1960s, he had become the favourite of many trainers and owners, particularly the Queen and the Queen Mother. Peter Biegel died on 31st October 1987.
Framed 24 x 19.5cm
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