Alfred Munnings

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Setting off: Huntsman and Hounds, 1914.
Setting off: Huntsman and Hounds, 1914.

Sir Alfred James Munnings, PRA, (8 October 1878 – 17 July 1959) was known as one of England's finest painters of horses, and as an outspoken enemy of Modernism. Engaged by Lord Beaverbrook's Canadian War Memorials Fund, he earned several prestigious commissions after the Great War that made him wealthy.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Alfred Munnings was born 8 October 1878 at Mendham, Suffolk across the River Waveney from Harleston in Norfolk. At fourteen he was apprenticed to a Norwich printer, designing and drawing advertising posters for the next six years, attending the Norwich School of Art in his spare time. When his apprenticeship ended, he became a full time painter. The loss of sight in his right eye in an accident in 1898 did not deflect his determination to paint, and in 1899 two of his pictures were shown at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition[1]. He painted rural scenes, frequently of subjects such as Gypsies[2] and horses.

He was associated with the Newlyn School of painters

Although he volunteered to join the Army, he was assessed as unfit to fight but was assigned to one the horse remount depots on the Western Front.

He was employed as war artist to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade under the patronage of Max Aitken in the latter part of the war. During the war he painted several scenes including a mounted portrait of General Jack Seely on Warrior and the cavalry charge at the Battle of Morieul Wood when Gordon Flowerdew earned his Victoria Cross.

Munnings was elected president of the Royal Academy of Art in 1944, a post he held until 1949. His presidency is most famous for the departing speech he gave in 1949, attacking modernism. The broadcast was heard by millions of listeners to BBC radio. An evidently inebriated Munnings claimed that the work of Cézanne, Matisse and Picasso had corrupted art. He recalled that Winston Churchill had once said to him, "Alfred, if you met Picasso coming down the street would you join with me in kicking his... something something?" to which Munnings said he replied "Yes Sir, I would".

He was awarded a knighthood in 1944. He died at Castle House, Dedham, Essex, on 17 July 1959. After his death, his wife turned their home in Dedham into a museum of his work. The village pub in Mendham is named after him.

[edit] At auction

His immensely popular sporting art works have enjoyed popularity in the United States as well as the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Represented by agents Frost & Reed of London while he was alive his works found homes in some of the wealthiest consumers of the day.

The highest price to date (January 2007) of a Munnings painting was from a work held by The Greentree Foundation (the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney) at Sotheby's in New York City May 5, 2004. Lot 30, "The Red Prince Mare," sold for $7,848,000, far above his previous auction record of $4,292,500 set at Christie's in December, 1999. It was one of four works by Munnings in the auction. "The Red Prince Mare" is a 40-by-60-inch oil on canvas that was executed in 1921 and had an estimate of $4,000,000 to $6,000,000.

[edit] Writings

  • An Artist's Life (London 1950)
  • The Second Burst (London 1951)
  • The Finish (London 1952)

[edit] References

  1. ^ S. Booth: Sir Alfred Munnings, 1878-1959: An Appreciation of the Artist, London, 1986]
  2. ^ Romnichal or Irish Travellers

[edit] External links

Honorary titles
Preceded by
Sir Edwin Lutyens		 President of the Royal Academy
1944–1949		 Succeeded by
Sir Gerald Kelly