Peter Biegel was, during his lifetime, regularly called 'the best painter of the horse today'. He he focused his activity on the greatest race horses of his time and hunting and racing action pictures.

He was born at Croxley Green on April 22, 1913 into an artistic family. One of his ancestors was Frederick Sang, a noted artist and architect in London in the 1850s. His family members were also horsemen, and his great-grandfather, an Irishman, was killed in a steeplechase at the age of twenty-one; his father was Dutch and was also a keen horseman, known as the 'Flying Dutchman' in the hunting field.

He was educated at Downside, and then went into his father's business in the city. After five year...