George Paice

British 1854 – 1925

George Paice came from a wealthy family and although not a horseman himself, he had a keen and sensitive equine eye and had a personal interest in racing.
He was fairly prolific during his lifetime and made a very good living from private commission work and so consequently did not feel the need to show his work much at public exhibitions. He exhibited seven times at the Royal Academy with titles such as “Haunt of the Moorhen”, “Tis weary waiting here” and “Well earned repose” and four times at the Royal Society of British Artists including one titled “Meditation”. This subject matter is different from the majority of his work known today. He received a lot of commission work to paint horses and dogs and in this he was very competent in depicting his subject matter. One of his patrons was Lady Margaret Cecil. However as some of his exhibited work reveals, he also undertook other subject matter and this included still life and African animals even though he never travelled further than Ireland.
Besides his small format horse and dog portraiture for which he is best known today, Paice produced a small number of large, fine point-to-point scenes, one of which was painted for the Officer`s Mess of the Royal Scots Greys.
The Great War considerably affected his commission work and he lost all his money in the early 1900s but continued to paint up until his death. He maintained a consistently fine quality although his later work sometimes showed a very free hand, a departure from his more usual tight and finished technique.
He married Eunice Mary Stuart at St George`s, Hanover Square in1879, living first in Pimlico before moving to Croydon. They had eight children, one of whom, Philip Stuart, also became an artist. He was buried in the family plot in Croydon and his racing colours were draped on his coffin at his funeral.