Alfred Munnings
Encyclopedia
Sir Alfred James Munnings KCVO
, 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.
, 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
. He painted rural scenes, frequently of subjects such as Gypsies and horses.
He was associated with the Newlyn School
of painters.
Munnings career would be associated with equine painting. He used his art to depict horses involving in hunting and he painted racehorses.
Although he volunteered to join the Army, he was assessed as unfit to fight. In 1917, his participation in the war was limited to a civilian job outside of Reading, processing tens of thousands of Canadian horses en route to France—and often death. Later, he was assigned to one of the horse remount depots on the Western Front.
Munnings' talent 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 many scenes, including a mounted portrait of General Jack Seely Warrior in 1918 (now in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada
, Ottawa). Munnings worked on this canvas a few thousand yards from the German front lines. When General Seely's unit was forced into a hasty withdrawal, the artist discovered what it was like to come under shellfire.
Munnings also painted Charge of Flowerdew's Squadron in 1918 (now in the collection of the Canadian War Museum
, Ottawa). In what is known as "the last great cavalry charge" at the Battle of Moreuil Wood
, Gordon Flowerdew
was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross
for leading Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians)
in a successful engagement with entrenched German forces.
The Canadian Forestry Corps
invited Munnings to tour their work camps, and he produced drawings, watercolors and paintings, including Draft Horses, Lumber Mill in the Forest of Dreux in France in 1918. This role of horses was critical and under-reported; and in fact, horse fodder
was the single largest commodity shipped to the front by some countries.
The "Canadian War Records Exhibition" at the Royal Academy after war's end included forty-five of Munnings canvasses.
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 and a street is also named after him.
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.
Royal Victorian Order
The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognising distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, any members of her family, or any of her viceroys...
, PRA
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
(8 October 1878–17 July 1959) was known as one of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
's finest painters of horses, and as an outspoken enemy of Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
. Engaged by Lord Beaverbrook
Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook
William Maxwell "Max" Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Bt, PC, was a Canadian-British business tycoon, politician, and writer.-Early career in Canada:...
's Canadian War Memorials Fund, he earned several prestigious commissions after the Great War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
that made him wealthy.
Biography
Alfred Munnings was born 8 October 1878 at MendhamMendham, Suffolk
Mendham is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located on the east bank of the River Waveney around a mile east of Harleston, in 2005 its population was 440. The parish includes the hamlets of Withersdale Street...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
across the River Waveney
River Waveney
The Waveney is a river which forms the border between Suffolk and Norfolk, England, for much of its length within The Broads.-Course:The source of the River Waveney is a ditch on the east side of the B1113 road between the villages of Redgrave, Suffolk and South Lopham, Norfolk...
from Harleston in Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
. At fourteen he was apprenticed to a Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
printer, designing and drawing advertising posters for the next six years, attending the Norwich School of Art
Norwich School of Art & Design
Norwich University College of the Arts is a higher education specialist art, design and media university college, based on a single site in the centre of Norwich, in the United Kingdom.-History:...
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
Royal Academy summer exhibition
The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the summer months of June, July, and August...
. He painted rural scenes, frequently of subjects such as Gypsies and horses.
He was associated with the Newlyn School
Newlyn School
The Newlyn School is a term used to describe an art colony of artists based in or near to Newlyn, a fishing village adjacent to Penzance, Cornwall, from the 1880s until the early 20th century. The establishment of the Newlyn School was reminiscent of the Barbizon School in France, where artists...
of painters.
Munnings career would be associated with equine painting. He used his art to depict horses involving in hunting and he painted racehorses.
Although he volunteered to join the Army, he was assessed as unfit to fight. In 1917, his participation in the war was limited to a civilian job outside of Reading, processing tens of thousands of Canadian horses en route to France—and often death. Later, he was assigned to one of the horse remount depots on the Western Front.
Munnings' talent was employed as war artist
War artist
A war artist depicts some aspect of war through art; this might be a pictorial record or it might commemorate how "war shapes lives." War artists have explored a visual and sensory dimension of war which is often absent in written histories or other accounts of warfare.- Definition and context:A...
to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade under the patronage of Max Aitken in the latter part of the war. During the war he painted many scenes, including a mounted portrait of General Jack Seely Warrior in 1918 (now in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
, Ottawa). Munnings worked on this canvas a few thousand yards from the German front lines. When General Seely's unit was forced into a hasty withdrawal, the artist discovered what it was like to come under shellfire.
Munnings also painted Charge of Flowerdew's Squadron in 1918 (now in the collection of the Canadian War Museum
Canadian War Museum
The Canadian War Museum is Canada’s national museum of military history. Located in Ottawa, Ontario, the museum covers all facets of Canada’s military past, from the first recorded instances of death by armed violence in Canadian history several thousand years ago to the country’s most recent...
, Ottawa). In what is known as "the last great cavalry charge" at the Battle of Moreuil Wood
Battle of Moreuil Wood
The Battle of Moreuil Wood was an engagement of World War I that took place on the banks of the Arve River in France, where the Canadian Cavalry Brigade attacked and forced the German 23rd Saxon Division to withdraw from Moreuil Wood, a commanding position on the river bank...
, Gordon Flowerdew
Gordon Flowerdew
Gordon Muriel Flowerdew VC was a Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces, received for his actions at the Battle of Moreuil Wood.-Details:He was 33 years old, and...
was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
for leading Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians)
Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians)
Lord Strathcona's Horse is a regular armoured regiment of the Canadian Forces. Currently based in Edmonton, Alberta, the regiment is part of Land Force Western Area's 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group...
in a successful engagement with entrenched German forces.
The Canadian Forestry Corps
Canadian Forestry Corps
The Canadian Forestry Corps was an administrative corps of the Canadian Army with its own cap badge, and other insignia and traditions.The Canadian Forestry Corps was created 14 Nov 1916. The crest of the Canadian Forestry Corps consists of a circle, with a beaver on top, superimposed on a pair of...
invited Munnings to tour their work camps, and he produced drawings, watercolors and paintings, including Draft Horses, Lumber Mill in the Forest of Dreux in France in 1918. This role of horses was critical and under-reported; and in fact, horse fodder
Fodder
Fodder or animal feed is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Most animal feed is from plants but some is of animal origin...
was the single largest commodity shipped to the front by some countries.
The "Canadian War Records Exhibition" at the Royal Academy after war's end included forty-five of Munnings canvasses.
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
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th...
, Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
and Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
had corrupted art. He recalled that Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
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
Castle House, Dedham
Castle House, Dedham, Essex was the home of Sir Alfred Munnings from 1919 till his death in 1959.Architecturally Castle House contains a mixture of Tudor and Georgian elements....
, Dedham
Dedham, Essex
Dedham is a village within the borough of Colchester in northeast Essex, England, situated on the River Stour and on the border of Essex and Suffolk...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, 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 and a street is also named after him.
At auction
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
John Hay Whitney
John Hay Whitney , colloquially known as "Jock" Whitney, was U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, and a member of the Whitney family.-Family:...
) at Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
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
Christie's
Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
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.
Writings
- An Artist's Life (London 1950)
- The Second Burst (London 1951)
- The Finish (London 1952)