John Skeaping 1901-1980
John Rattenbury Skeaping was born into an unconventional family in South Woodford, Essex; his father was a painter and illustrator, mostly of sentimental subjects of children. His mother was a musican, and the four children were educated at home and encouraged to express themselves artistically and musically. From a very early age the tandem theme of horses and art run throughout the life of Skeaping. He showed a very early aptitude, enrolling in the Blackheath School of Art at thirteen, he went on to the Goldsmiths College in 1915, the Central School of Arts and Crafts in 1917.
Skeaping joined The Royal Academy Schools for Sculpture in 1919, where he won the 1920 Gold Medal and the Travelling Scholarship. This he took in Italy returning to exhibit at the R.A. in 1922. He won the Prix de Rome in 1924 and returning to Italy was soon followed there by Barbara Hepworth whom he married in Florence in 1925. They returned together at the end of 1926 and Skeaping's commissions for Wedgwood and Aveling Porter financed their first Studio Exhibition in 1927. In 1928 they held two joint exhibitions in London and Glasgow that established them in the forefront of British Sculpture. Exhibiting also at the Imperial Gallery, Claridge Gallery, Sydney Burney Gallery and Venice Biennale amongst others, this period culminated in their joint exhibition at Tooth's in 1930 to great critical acclaim. However they began to drift apart, artistically and personally, separating in 1931.
Skeaping continued to carve and draw exhibiting at the 7&5, until his resignation in 1932, and at many other exhibition in London and abroad. In 1934 he held a one-man exhibition at Tooth's of carving and later that same year of drawings of Spain and France. All very successful, and exhibitions in New York in 1935 and 7 took his appeal overseas. During the 1930's he also undertook many architectural commissions including the carving in granite of two giant tortoise.
After the war, he settled in Devon, but soon restless, he travelled to Mexico and spent two years living with the Indians learning their methods of pottery. Upon his return he became Professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, a post he held until resigning in 1959 to go and live and work in the Camargue in the South of France. All through the late 40's and 50's his association with Ackermanns had encouraged him to produce more horse racing art alongside his sculpture and teaching. Now settled in France he was called upon to undertake many commissions, including life-size portraits of Hyperion, Chamossaire and Brigadier Gerard. Frequent exhibitions of paintings drawings and bronzes at Ackermann of London and in Paris, South Africa and in the U.S.A. showed how prolific he was during the 60's and 70's.
His work is represented in The Tate, British Museum and R.A. in London, and in Oxford, Cambridge, Bradford, Leeds, Newcastle, Manchester, Mansfield, Swindon, Sunderland, Eastbourne, Liverpool, Barlaston, Ulster amongst others in the Provinces and in Australia, Japan and the USA, abroad.
