Researching George Paice

Born in Pimlico, London, Paice studied at the Heatherley School of Fine Art and at the Royal Academy from 1905-1910. He worked mostly for private collectors, his paintings almost never present at public exhibitions. Nevertheless, he did exhibit his works at the Royal Academy and at the Royal Society of British Artists, gaining notoriety among the wealthy. He was quickly a much sought-after artist by the English aristocracy, one or two mecenes encouraging his work. Probably for that reason, most of his paintings remained in private collections until two decades ago when some of those works appeared in world known Auction Houses such as Christie's (South Kensington, 20/06/91).

After his marriage in 1879, he and his wife, Eunice Mary Stuart, moved to Croydon where Paice painted most of his horses and dogs, although he did paint some point-to-point landscapes, these larger than the usually small format animal portraits he was commissioned to paint (among the most known and famous artworks of Paice are "The Red Lion Inn, Wendlesbury, Nr. Bicester, Oxfordshire", "'Jenny' a bay hunter in a landscape", and "A saddled bay hunter in a stable with a goat"). Rarely did he paint people, one of the few exceptions being his own self-portrait. He used various signatures: "P" ('A bay horse at a manger in a stable interior',1883), "GPaice" - P and G superposed -('Huntsmen and Hounds',1886,Lotherton Hall, Leeds Museums and Galleries), "G.Paice"('Swanington',1907), "George Paice" ('Two Pugs on a Red Divan',1880).

A wealthy artist at the beginning of the 20th century, Paice suffered a great loss of money during World War I due to lack of commissions but continued painting until his death.

Strangely enough, George Paice remains absent from many Art Dictionaries, although his paintings travelled overseas, as referred in The National Sporting Library (NSL) Newsletter, Spring 2008: "Mrs. Dulaney also contributed an oil painting by British artist George Paice (1854–1925), Hunter in a BoxStall with Docked Tail, in which the handsome bay poses alertly in a spacious box stall, eyeing the viewer".