WERNER RENTSCH, ARTIST
When Werner Rentsch traveled from New York City to visit a small town in the Catskills Mountains of New York State in 1968, he was captivated by the beauty of the rolling hills and green pastures. His artist’s eye was drawn to meaningful small-town events, people at work and play, smoke rising from sugar shacks that dotted the countryside, and barns that had been built with love but were no longer valued in a changing era. This was typical of small towns in those days, and he captured their essence in oil paintings and drawings. His paintings from this period formed his early work and are now in the collection of the Jefferson Historical Society of New York.
Soon afterward Werner acquired a former dairy farm in the Catskills, and he caught sight of a handsome horse on his neighbor’s property. The neighbor, a former NYS Calvary officer, sold Allegro to Werner and became his close friend and mentor. Another horse, a spirited Morgan named King, soon joined Werner’s barn, and he made many drawings and paintings of his equine partners. Not long afterward, Werner was invited to illustrate and design The Whole Horse Catalog, a book that became a perennial bestseller. It was at this time that he began to focus full time on painting horses. Werner began with the horses that grazed in his pasture but
soon sought out many well-known competition horses and their riders—renowned racetrack legends such as Secretariat, Affirmed, and Alydar and competitors in the Olympic Games and International Three-Day Eventing.
Above all, Werner was captivated by the beauty, grace, extraordinary conditioning, and heart of these equine athletes. He was acclaimed for this work, received many private commissions, and had numerous one-man shows in galleries and workshops, as well as twelve museum exhibitions and more than forty juried or group exhibitions across the country. In 1984 he was invited to join the American Academy of Equine Art and served as its president for sixteen years.
Werner’s artistic career took a third turn after he visited the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania in Africa, to visit his son, who worked there as a wildlife conservationist. Awed by the rich diversity in animal life, Werner returned to the Serengeti many times to study and depict large and small animals in their natural surroundings. This work was exhibited in New York City, where his painting of zebras was prized by the Salmagundi Club. He was invited to become a signature member of Artists for Conservation, and his work appeared in several of its national and international exhibitions and books. Many of Werner’s paintings featuring African wildlife have been acquired by private collectors.
Werner died in 2025, leaving an estate of paintings and drawings, including experimental and personal work that was never exhibited. Some of that work is catalogued on this website, along with many of the paintings that are now in private collections. Information about available work can be accessed by email contact through this website.