Dame Elisabeth Frink, R.A. (1930-1993)

Edward Lucie-Smith discusses the Chinese Horse series: 'Another source of inspiration were the horses seen in Chinese art. The water buffaloes for Hong Kong were not the first occasion on which Frink turned to China for inspiration. She was interested by the powerful pottery horses often found in T'ang tombs, and had one of these in her own collection. She also looked closely at something much more banal: the Chinese horses in different attitudes which are found, generally in sets of seven, as small porcelain ornaments and depicted on scrolls. Her Chinese Horses (1989) are proof of her ability to transform this apparently unpromising source material' (E. Lucie Smith, Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture Since 1984 and Drawings), London, 1994, p. 43).