On the moors

Name: SIR ALFRED JAMES MUNNINGS, P.R.A., R.W.S. (BRITISH, 1878-1959)
Brand: On the moors
Price: 80000.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised GBP 100,000

Estimate

GBP 80,000 - GBP 120,000

Closed: 16 Dec 2021

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SIR ALFRED JAMES MUNNINGS, P.R.A., R.W.S. (BRITISH, 1878-1959)

On the moors

Price Realised GBP 100,000

Closed: 16 Dec 2021

Price Realised GBP 100,000

Closed: 16 Dec 2021

Details Lot Essay Related Articles More from

SIR ALFRED JAMES MUNNINGS, P.R.A., R.W.S. (BRITISH, 1878-1959)
On the moors
signed and indistinctly dated 'A. J. MUNNINGS/19[11?]' (lower left)
oil on canvas
14 x 18 in. (35.6 x 45.7 cm.)

Charles A. Bunting, Norwich; Christie's, London, 17 June 1932, lot 91 (21 gns to Spicer), as 'Three horses on a hill'.
H.G. Spicer, Homewood, Sawston, Cambridgeshire.
Purchased by the present owner's father, circa 1960, and by descent.

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.
Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.

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Alastair PlumbSenior Specialist, Head of Sale, European Art

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Lot Essay

In the summers of 1910 and 1911, Munnings went on extended painting expeditions from his home at Swainsthorpe to the nearby Ringland Hills, making his headquarters at The Falcon Inn at Costessey. Here he found ready subjects and models in the horse dealers, families of gypsies and ponies that congregated at the fairs and public houses throughout the summer months. However, it was the images of the gypsy boy Shrimp with the artist’s collection of ponies that would come to define this period of Munnings’s and create some of his most celebrated pictures.

Probably painted during Munnings’s second idyllic summer in Ringland, , shows a trio of horses grazing in the hills. There is a languor to the image that can be found in so many pictures from the Ringland Hills series. One can almost hear the humming of the insects and feel the soft breeze as the horses twitch their tails.

The picture was originally owned by one of Munnings’s most important early patrons, Charles A. Bunting (1878-1950). Bunting maintained a lifelong friendship with Munnings and his wife, Violet, often attending horse races together. In 1932 Bunting offered 6 paintings from his collection for auction at Christie's. Alongside the present picture were famous early works such as , 1905 (Private Collection), and , 1910 (Private Collection). The majority of the collection was passed on to his son, Dr Charles F. Bunting, and sold after his death at Christie’s, London, 12 June 2002.

We are grateful to Lorian Peralta-Ramos, Tristram Lewis and the Curatorial staff at The Munnings Museum for their assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.