THE NATIONAL SPORTING LIBRARY NEWSLETTER,
Winter 2003

WALLACE NALL RETROSPECTIVE

In November, the National Sporting Library opened a two-week exhibit honoring popular sporting artist Wallace Nall of Middleburg. His portraits of people and favorite horses and dogs grace many homes in the Piedmont.

“W. Nall, A Retrospective,” was the initiative of Nicole Hawes Perry, an NSL Chairman’s Council member and close friend of Nall.

His many friends in the area generously loaned portraits and paintings of beloved hunters, racehorses and dogs. NSL Curator Walta Warren arranged the 27 works in the NSL’s Forrest E. Mars Sr. Exhibit Hall.

“When Nicky Perry and Margaret Littleton first posed the idea of an exhibition of Wally Nall’s work, none of us had any idea of the overwhelming response that such an exhibit would generate,” said Warren. “Within a few weeks, well over 100 paintings from private collections had been offered for hanging. Unfortunately, we were forced to narrow that number drastically due to the amount of available hanging space which we had at the time of the exhibit.

“It was difficult to turn away so many paintings of such beloved and honored animals painted with Wally Nall’s very particular eye for detail in execution. Visitors repeatedly commented on having known a particular horse and how precisely Mr. Nall had captured the essence of the personality of the animal, as well as of the rider,” she said.

“I think he is a wonderful person and deserves credit for all the work he has done,” said Perry. “I hunted with Piedmont Hunt, and Wally followed the hounds. He’s always at the Upperville Horse Show. When visiting homes of friends, I would see work he had done for them. In 1989, my Paint horse was hunter champion and my husband commissioned Wally to paint a portrait.”

Nall first came to Middleburg in the early 1970s. His good friend, Mrs. Reginald Vickers, of Middleburg, said, “He’s a very unassuming person. It took awhile for him to get established here, but we’re a very chatty community. One person would have a painting by him and tell their friends.”

When his reputation was established, he was in great demand to paint favorite animals and field sports. His paintings have appeared on the cover of The Chronicle of the Horse 15 times. His works have also been on exhibit at the Museum of Hounds and Hunting in Leesburg.

Nall originally came from Piedmont, California. During World War II, he served in the Army’s First Cavalry. After the war he studied at the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California. He soon found steady work as a commercial artist but his love remained with horses. In addition to riding in and judging horse shows, he founded the Los Altos Hunt in Woodside and served as the first master. In later years, he moved east to New Jersey, foxhunting near his home and working out of a studio in New York City.

The beauty of Virginia’s renowned hunt country lured him south to Middleburg, the land of pristine foxhunting country and fine horse shows. “He fell in love with this country and made it here,” said Mrs. Vickers.