Tessa Pullan

Tessa Pullan from Rutland, (born 1953) is an English sculptor.^[1][2]

Bronze statue of a horse (1977) on a Lloyds Bank in Cambridge

Biography

Horse and Rider on the Black Country Route

Civil War Horse at the National Sporting Library

Pullan was from 1971 to 1974 in France apprenticed to the sculptor John Skeaping and then gained a diploma from 1974 to 1977 at the City and Guilds of London Art School. She studied from 1977 to 1980 from the Royal Academy of Arts in London.^[3]

Her first exhibition took place in 1976 at London's Guildhall Art Gallery. In 1980 she started her first studio. The philanthropist and horse breeder Paul Mellon commissioned the Civil War Horse for the National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg, Virginia,^[4] honouring the horses and mules who died during the American Civil War.^[5] Her bust of Mellon is in the National Portrait Gallery.^[6] She is now one of Britain's leading animal sculptors, working in a variety of media, but mainly bronze and wood. She also produces portraits. The artist has a studio in Barrowden, Rutland since 1990 and studios in Sandwich, Aberystwyth and Berkhamsted.^[3]

She is a member of the Society of Equestrian Artists.^[7]

Equine Sculptures

The racehorse, Sea Hero, won the Kentucky Derby in 1993 and Pullan was tasked with creating a sculpture of him at the National Sporting Library and Museum. Created in bronze, the horse is over 7 ft and 2 tons in weight.^[2]

The 1996 "Horse and Rider" galvanised steel statue on the Black Country Route, Wolverhampton was commissioned by Wolverhampton City Council. Pullan carved the sculpture using wood and then the model was scaled up and produced in steel by Arden Fabrications of Knowle.^[8][9]

Pullan was given instructions by Paul Mellon to make a bronze, three-quarter size statue of a Civil War Horse.^[10] As part of her research, she contacted the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for images of abused horses to influence the oppressive appearance of the statue.^[1] On 17 September 1997, the statue was unveiled by the Virginia Historical Society.^[11]

Some works

• Untitled (1977) Gonville Place in Cambridge
• 1993 Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero (1993), Rokeby Stables, Upperville in Fauquier County, Virginia
• Civil War Horse (1997): 1, National Sporting Library in Middleburg, Virginia; 2, U.S. Cavalry Museum at Fort Riley, Kansas; and 3, Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, Virginia
• Horse and Rider, Black Country Route, Bilston

External links

• Artist website

References

1. Watson, Harry L.; Griffin, Larry J. (2008). Southern cultures : the fifteenth anniversary reader (illustrated ed.). 405: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9780807886465. Retrieved 23 March 2020.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
2. "National Sporting Library & Museum To Host Sea Hero Symposium". The Chronicle of the Horse. 20 May 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
3. Baskett, John (2006). The horse in art (Rev. and expanded ed.). Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300117400.
4. THE ORIGIN OF THE WAR HORSE by Lisa Campbell
5. "Other Exhibitions and Displays | Virginia Museum of History & Culture". www.virginiahistory.org. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
6. "Tessa Pullan (1953-), Artist". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
7. "Tessa Pullan". Society of Equestrian Artists.
8. "Tessa Pullan". Society of Equestrian Artists. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
9. Noszlopy, George Thomas; Waterhouse, Fiona (2005). Public sculpture of Staffordshire and the Black Country (illustrated ed.). Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press. p. 23. ISBN 9780853239895. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
10. Gaaserud, Michaela Riva (3 June 2014). Moon Virginia: Including Washington DC. UK: Hachette. ISBN 9781612388045. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
11. "The War Horse". Virginia Museum of History and Culture. Retrieved 23 March 2020.