This horse portrait was commissioned by my mother as a birthday present for her dad (Lee’s husband), who loved horses. It is the second of two animal portraits (the other a lioness); both have the somewhat unsettling anthropomorphic eyes. I’m sure it’s unintentional, but I always thought, the way the horse is looking out of the painting right at the viewer, that its gaze was somewhat contemptuous or suspicious.

Lee Franclemont, ‘Anticipation’, 1967, oil on board. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.