Equine 1942 Portrait by Jean Bowman (SOLD)

Rare, early equine portrait by Jean Bowman signed & dated 1942 (LR at age 24) from a stable in Ruxton, Maryland (pencil signed on verso)

Art Sz: 22"H x 28"W

Frame Sz: 27"H x 34"W

Jean Eleanor Bowman (1918-1994) was an American sporting artist and equine portraitist. After graduating from Spence School in New York City, she attended the Grand Central Art School and the National Academy of Design, both in New York City, and the Scott Carbee School of Art in Boston, Massachusetts. Her career was launched in 1940 when she held her first solo show at Vose Gallery in Boston. She was the first American to show at Ackermann Gallery in London, the oldest sporting gallery in the world. In 1980, she helped to establish the American Academy of Equine Art, which is now located in Georgetown, Kentucky. Bowman’s artwork was featured on over 60 front covers of The Chronicle of the Horse, an American equestrian magazine founded in 1937. In 1944 she married Alexander MacKay-Smith, the master of the Blue Ridge Hunt. Her patrons included prominent horse enthusiasts and equestrians such as Queen Elizabeth II, Paul Mellon, and John Hay Whitney and her work is displayed in the National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg, Virginia. Tragically, Bowman died in a plane crash in 1994.