78 SIDELINES OCTOBER 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
“Rachel Alexandra”
18 x 24 oil on board. Collection of Paul and Susan Roy
Leland Neff: A Living Legend
By Don Rosendale
T
his summer, I finally surrendered to the reality that I’m not
going to win Powerball and be able to buy a Stubbs or
Munnings racehorse painting.
But I still needed to replace the primitive oil over my fireplace
that I rescued from an Irish pub 20 years ago. A telephone call
to a friend at Sotheby’s elicited the observation that “the best
equestrian artist since Sir Alfred Munnings is Leland Neff, and his
work is affordable.”
Affordable is a relative term; the last George Stubbs 18th
century racehorse painting sold at auction for $22 million. You
can occasionally pick up a Sir Alfred Munnings 20th century horse
painting for six figures.
Thewise counsel of mySotheby’s friend led tome toBreakabeen,
New York, and the farm of artist Leland Neff. I wanted to learn why
one of the country’s top fashion photographers had forsaken a
six figure practice and Dom Perignon lifestyle in the Hamptons
to breed and paint horses in a remote place where the nearest
watering hole is a bar selling $1 beers.
Leland is the son of a Navy fighter pilot, and moved frequently
during his childhood. He was born in Virginia and then moved to
Texas, where at the age of 3 he saw a mare with a white foal and
was instantly hooked. He learned to ride by being propped up on
a barrel racing horse, and for the next two years rode in Texas
rodeos.
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