Details
SIR ALFRED JAMES MUNNINGS, P.R.A., R.W.S. (BRITISH, 1878-1959)
The Queen's Horses: 'Corporal', 'Biscuit' and 'Aureole'
signed 'A.J. MUNNINGS' (lower left) and inscribed 'Three of the Queens Horses painted at Boyd Rochfort's stables/Newmarket/Left-to right Corporal - Biscuit - Aureole' (on the reverse)
oil on panel
1058 x 33 in. (27 x 83.8 cm.)
Provenance
with Richard Green, London (donated by the artist with proceeds to go to the Hungarian Uprising Relief Fund, according to an inscription on the reverse).
Doreen Norton Margetts, New Zealand, by whom given to
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
Their sale; Sotheby’s, New York, 12 October 1994, lot 215.
with Frost & Reed, London.
Literature
R. Pound, The Englishman, London, 1962, p. 233, illustrated.
Exhibited
London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of works by Sir Alfred J. Munnings, K.C.V.O., P.P.R.A., 10 March-30 June 1956, no. 226, lent by the artist.
Auckland, Auckland City Art Gallery, Centenary Exhibition for the Auckland Racing Club, 1974.
Special notice
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.
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Lot Essay

This striking frieze-like composition depicts three of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s racehorses exercising on Newmarket Heath. It was painted in the early 1950s at the Freemason Lodge Stables of Captain (later Sir) Cecil Boyd-Rochfort, a war hero who was the trainer for King George VI and his daughter Queen Elizabeth II from 1943 to 1968.

From left to right the horses shown are Corporal, Biscuit and Aureole. As Corporal wasn’t foaled until 1952 this helps to date the painting to circa 1954, the year that Aureole won his famous victory in the Coronation Cup at the Derby meeting at Epsom. Munnings immortalised this triumph on canvas in H.M. The Queen and Aureolein the Paddock at Epsom before the Coronation Cup at the Derby meeting, 1954, which exists in two versions, one in the Royal Collection, and the other sold at Christie's, London, 30 June 2016, lot 16 for £2,098,500.

Aureole was the Queen’s most successful racehorse, and earned her the position of leading owner in 1954, winning four out of his five races. A bright chestnut with a white blaze and three white socks, he was sired by Hyperion, the Derby and St Leger winner in 1933 and a leading sire. His dam Angelola, second in the 1948 Oaks and winner at the Yorkshire Oaks, also came from a royal line of breeding. Aureole ran in the Derby just six days after Queen Elizabeth’s coronation on 2 June 1953 where he was beaten by Pinza, ridden by the newly knighted Sir Gordon Richards. Aureole was bred by King George VI, the Queen’s father and, being temperamental and excitable, was known to have relished chasing stud staff around his field as they tried to retrieve him for stabling in the evenings. He later became champion sire in 1960 and 1961.

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.

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