April 15, 2014

Henry Koehler: Equestrian Artist & Painter of Artichokes!

My friends at Halcyon House Antiques are having a show and sale of Henry Koehler’s paintings from April 18 to May 31, 2014. Mr. Koehler is a prolific painter of hunt and equestrian scenes, and is widely acknowledged to be one of the finest living sporting artists in the world. His long association with the sporting life began when his illustrations appeared in The New Yorker, Town & Country and Sports Illustrated.

His first exhibition was in 1961 and since that time he has shown 58 times in London, Paris, Dublin, Johannesburg and throughout the United States. His paintings have been collected by some of the biggest names in the art and equestrian worlds, including Paul Mellon and HM Queen Elizabeth II and her son, Prince Charles.

Mr.Koehler’s works reflect the myriad details of a race meet, and through his pictures, you can see the pieces that go into making the colourful races such a beloved pastime.

In addition to the racing images, Halcyon House Antiques also has some paintings of gardening tools,

including a set from Baltimore’s own Harvey Ladew of Ladew Gardens, about which I’ve written before.

The other main theme of Mr. Koehler’s paintings, and one which he’s been doing for many years, is artichokes!

This piece is/was in Lars Bolander’s home in Palm Beach.image

He has a passion for artichokes and has a large collection of artichoke-themed items, including ties, cufflinks, doorknockers, and slippers and pieces made from gold, silver, wood and ivory!

There’s a marvelous story of one of Mr. Koehler’s early paintings which he did of Jack and Jackie Kennedy sailing. It’s told by the artist’s step-son, CBS newsman, Anthony Mason.

For more information on the show, please contact Eric at Halcyon House Antiques.

8 comments:

  1. I love all the horse theme pictures and especially the gardening tools and vegies, what wonderful additions these would be to a room, incredible...

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    1. I can't wait to meet him! A man who paints horses and artichokes equally well must be fascinating.

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  2. Sporting Art treasures! Wonderful stuff!

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  3. Meg I love all of Koehler's varied works, the equestrian and the artichokes are wonderful!

    xoxo
    Karena
    Feature:Decorate Fearlessly

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  4. how blessed you are + wish I was closer. xxpeggybraswelldesign.com

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  5. It's funny you should post about artichoke paintings. I was just reading an oral history of Bertha Schaefer on the American Archive of Art and she was talking about Jackson Pollock coming in to her galelry (drunk) saying that he saw an artichoke painting of Alfred Durer's in the in window and it was the most beautiful painting he had ever seen. The painting is in The Phillips Collection. I guess the artichoke is quite an interesting subject.

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