HUBERT DE WATRIGANT  FRENCH EQUESTRIAN PAINTER WITH BREATHTAKING FLAIR  

A tenth solo show celebrates one of the world’s most admired and collected equestrian artists. Joie de vivre, draughtsmanship, and brilliant colour in the paintings of Hubert de Watrigant shine out of thirty new works at Osborne Studio Gallery, in London’s Belgravia.

For this show, he has added a new theme to the excitement of the racecourse.  A patron introduced him to Native American culture, which he depicts with panache, and after twenty journeys to Japan, he is more fascinated than ever by the vast differences between the traditions of Japanese life and the West.  Portraits of people from his travels are part of the new show  

Since 1976 there have been at least sixty Watrigant exhibitions, from Paris to Tokyo, Hong Kong to Madrid, and New York to Palm Beach. Following those shows, a host of connoisseur collectors bought his work for their museums, country houses, and glittering pleasure domes.

Director Geoffrey Hughes specialises in contemporary figurative art oblivious to transient fads or fashion. His own ‘passion cheval’ began at seven years old, where he chased around the nursery with his twin brother, pretending to be jockeys.

He has been discovering and nurturing his ‘stable’ since 1986 in an elegant narrow street lined with artisan shops, a few steps from stately embassies, hotels, and private mansions.  

Since his last exhibition four years ago, and an encouraging visit from Geoffrey last year, Watrigant has taken a new, peaceful approach to his paints and brushes that he may have put aside. 

He believes his work has been transformed. In his own words: ‘without worrying about pleasing people, without any precise project, without any commercial goal, my painting was able to find other themes, to renew itself without losing my touch. And probably for the first time, total freedom was found.’  A book about his hero, the founder/inventor of Impressionism, Claude Monet, set his imagination alight.

Watrigant was born in 1954, in South West France, where his father bred and trained racehorses.  He is widely regarded as a world leader in equestrian and racing art. This is the painter with a lyrical brush, whose work is fearless, passionate, and unexpected. He inherited natural artistic talent from both sides of the family. Began by sketching horses in his father’s stables.  At school, he drew ceaselessly in the margins of his sketchbooks.

After school and French National Service, he decided to become a professional artist, holding his first exhibition in 1976 at Maisons -Lafitte in Paris. The following year he won first prize at Les Sept Collines de Rome exhibition. 

As a testament to the fresh energy he brings to racing scenes, a true descendant of Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, and Gericault, his collectors are legion in many countries.  Private collectors are headed by her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, ruling dynasties of the Emirates, connoisseur owners and breeders, financial, art and shipping families such as Rothschild, Niarchos and Wildenstein, illustrious stud farms in America. 

The late Sir Peter 0’Sullevan,  BBC  ‘voice of Racing’, and former Chairman of the Osborne Studio  Gallery, who raised the quality of racing commentary to a new level of excellence,  compared Watrigant’s painting to the art of the choreographer, a fluid, ballet-like interpretation of fleeting moments.   

In his own words: ‘Each painting speaks of Watrigant’s deep appreciation and knowledge of his metier, and yet they are fearless, passionate and unexpected.   Oil, gouache, watercolour and ink help him to create contemporary compositions and depict instinctive moments.'

Watrigant describes his vision:  ‘I don’t focus on the main event and principal actions; I prefer to linger on details. I am more interested in the jockey adjusting a stirrup or the lad waiting for his horse. I pick up my binoculars when others put them down.'

In these words, he shows himself to be a true descendant of passionate horse lovers Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, and Gericault.  

3-18 November The Osborne Studio Gallery www.osg.uk.com