Sir Alfred Munnings: His Art and His Market

Born on 8th October 1878 in Mendham, Suffolk, Alfred Munnings was the second of four sons to John Munnings, a miller, and his wife, Emily. His parentage and upbringing were agricultural to say the least, and Alfred grew up in the bustling environment of a working mill where he would have been surrounded by horses and horse-drawn carts on a daily basis; his familiarity and ease with these animals would prove fundamental to his artistic career.

 

Having left school aged fourteen, Munnings was apprenticed to Page Brothers, a printers and sign-writers based in nearby Norwich, and worked there for six years, designing posters and advertisements, and studying at Norwich School of Art in his spare time. It was after this that he became a painter full-time, purchasing a carpenter’s workshop and converting it into his studio. Munnings was clearly driven and eager to pursue a professional career as an artist, even at such a young age and despite a childhood accident which had left him blind in one eye. Aged not quite twenty, he was successfully elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and had two of his works accepted for the Royal Academy’s exhibition in 1899 – this was just the start of his relationship with that particular institution, as he was later made President in 1944. However, much of those early years was spent in the company of a boy named Shrimp with whom he roamed East Anglia with ponies and a caravan, only stopping to paint when he’d found a suitable viewpoint. By 1910, he was venturing further afield – as far as Cornwall, in fact – and became acquainted with the Newlyn School of Painters, notably Harold and Laura Knight and Stanhope Forbes. It was at this time that he also met, by association with the Newlyn School, Florence Carter-Wood, later his first wife.

 

During The Great War, Munnings – as a result of his impaired vision – was considered unfit to fight. His familiarity with horses leant itself to a civilian job instead, and he worked to process the movement of thousands of these animals from Canada to France. He later accompanied them on their journey to the Western Front, taking a post at one of the many horse remount depots. Munnings also worked as a war artist to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade; his works from this period – many of which are now housed in the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa - remain important records of the combat fought during the latter years of the war.

 

After his wife’s untimely death in 1914 and having returned safely from the Western Front, Munnings settled himself at Castle House, Dedham (today the Munnings Art Museum) in 1919. A pretty Georgian house with adjoining studio, closely located to notable racecourses and the wider countryside he knew and loved well, it was perfect for him. Indeed, he described it himself as ‘the house of my dreams’. He lived there with his second wife Violet McBride (née Haines) who was herself an accomplished horsewoman. They had no children but lived quite happily, with Violet encouraging him to take society commissions alongside painting more pastoral equine images.

 

In 1944, Munnings was both made knighted (later Knight Commander in 1947) and was elected President of the Royal Academy of Arts. His tenure was defined by a speech given in 1949, in which he described Modernism and the art of Cézanne and Picasso among others as corrupt.

 

Munnings lived out the remainder of his days at Castle House, working up until his death in 1959. It was soon after that the house, in a campaign spearheaded by his widow Violet, became a museum dedicated to his life and work. This museum is now a site of pilgrimage for avid admirers of the artist which, together with an autobiography (published in three parts, each one’s title fittingly reflecting his love of horse-racing), form Munnings’ great legacy and his work is, as a result, engrained in the British psyche.

 

Munnings’ market has remained steady; his works, both larger paintings and smaller studies, have appeared at auction consistently over the last 20 years or so. During that time, the works that have achieved the highest prices (frequently reaching and exceeding the six-figure mark) have been large scale works, those depicting society figures on horseback, or notable racehorses.

 

 

In this summer's recent sales, both Sotheby's and Christie's sold works by Munnings, several of which exceeded their top estimates.