Page 16 - OSG: 25 Years on Motcomb Street

JACK LAWRENCE MILLER

Quite by chance, I came across this painting by Jack Lawrence Miller several
years ago, of Nijinsky and Lester Piggott entering the Winners Enclosure.
It was an extraordinary moment of serendipity for me, since I had first
fallen in love with a large oil painting by the same artist of Nijinsky’s Derby,
a fabulous work with Nijinsky coming round Tattenham Corner in that
legendary 1970 classic; this painting that my brother-in-law had bought in
an exhibition in 1971 literally inspired my interest in Sporting Art.

Fifteen years later, in 1986, I had the opportunity to open a gallery, but
without any artists! Remembering my brother-in-law’s painting I was
determined to track Jack down. I succeeded and to my amazement he
agreed to a show; and so the first Osborne Studio Gallery exhibition
went ahead, albeit rather chaotically, but ultimately successfully!

It has therefore been an enormous pleasure, all these years later, to acquire
this painting, which I imagine was created during the same period as the
original catalyst for my entry into the world of Sporting Art.

Geoffrey Hughes, 2023

Nijinsky and Lester Piggott Ride into
the Winners Enclosure, Derby 1970
Oil on canvas, 82 x 40 cm