Charlotte Mullins comments on Maj Gerald Gundry and The Duke of Beaufort’s Hounds

ON a changeable autumn day, a pack of hounds races up a steep bank. One rider is halfway up the hill, but the rest of the field is some way behind, just emerging from a copse of trees. Beyond, the English countryside stretches out in a patchwork of fields and hedgerows. Maj Gerald Gundry, joint-master and huntsman, is riding the grey horse, but it is the Duke of Beaufort’s hounds that are the stars of this painting, each one captured with expressive verve.

Peter Biegel completed this commission in 1958. Originally, the Hertfordshire-born artist had followed his father into the City as a broker, but, in 1938, he decided to retrain. As a child, he had a pony and enjoyed hunting, so he chose to study with leading animal painter Lucy Kemp-welch, who specialised in horses. After a stint in the Wiltshire regiment during the Second World War, he continued his training at Bournemouth School of Art and subsequently with Lionel Edwards. He finally branched out on his own and held his first solo show in 1950. The following year, his work was included in the Festival of Britain.

By the time he completed this painting, he was a successful equine artist. Whether he captured horses jumping gates out of English woodland or brush fences in a steeplechase, his paintings soon attracted a committed clientele that included the late Queen Mother and Elizabeth II.