British and Irish Art Articles

By Florence Evans

Sir Alfred James Munnings, P.R.A., R.W.S. (1878-1959)
Tom and Luke Parsons on their ponies, Champagne and Squirrel, Exmoor
signed 'A.J. MUNNINGS' (lower left)
oil on canvas
28 x 36 in. (71.1 x 91.5 cm.)
Painted in 1927
Sold for £1,072,000
London, May 2006



John Ferneley, Sen. (1782-1860)
Portrait of John Drummond on a hunter, with a groom holding his second horse, in a landscape, a hunting party beyond signed and dated 'J.Ferneley/Melton Mowbray./1831' (lower right)
oil on canvas
44 x 63 in. (111.8 x 160 cm.)
Sold for £344,000
London, May 2006



Alfred de Dreux (1810-1860)
An African groom holding a stallion, with a dog
signed and dated 'Alfred de Dreux 1858' (lower left)
oil on canvas
24¼ x 30½ in. (61.6 x 77.5 cm.)
Sold for £848,000
London, May 2006

Following 2005's record-breaking total of $18 million for Christie's Sporting Art sales in London and New York, this year's King Street sale offers a very strong group of works from the 18th century to the present.

Highlights include Alfred de Dreux's spectacular portrait of An African groom holding a stallion, with a dog, an exquisite example of the artist's passionate interest in Arabian horses and the exotic. It is characterized by luminous colour, bold modeling and a bravura attention to detail. The inherent vigour of the stallion, apparent in its gleaming musculature, is contrasted with the endearing relationship between horse and master, the groom looking down affectionately at his charge. Painted in 1858, a year after de Dreux had been awarded the Légion d'honneur, the present work is likely to depict a stallion belonging to Abd el Kadra, an Algerian Commander. It is also one of the last Orientalist works to have been painted by the artist. His dramatic death in 1860, following a duel over payment for a portrait of the Emperor Napoleon III, ended an artistic career in its prime.

In contrast to de Dreux's exoticism are two quintessentially British depictions of English rural life from the 19th and 20th centuries. John Ferneley Senior's stylish hunting portrait of John Drummond on a chestnut hunter, with a groom holding his second horse is a stunning example of the artist's work at a time when his patrons included many of the most prominent members of the aristocracy, such as the Earl of Lichfield and Count d'Orsay. It is particularly appropriate, therefore, that it has been consigned from the estate of His Royal Highness the Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, whose interest in horses and country pursuits extended to an exceptional sporting art library and fine pictures, of which this is one of the best examples.

Sir Alfred James Munnings' of Tom and Luke Parsons on their ponies, Champagne and Squirrell, Exmoor, was painted in 1927 when the artist was enjoying international success, a year after his only trip to the States. This portrait of two young brothers on their ponies set against the bucolic Exmoor landscape Munnings loved so much, effortlessly captures the elegance of the 1920s.

It is a masterwork of subtly blended colours and brushwork, skilfully fixing a moment of transience while implying a sense of movement as the brothers cross the moor. This fluidity is characteristic of Munnings' equestrian portraits; as a keen horseman, he understood the nature of his chosen subject, becoming the premiere equestrian artist of his day, effortlessly continuing in the tradition established by the likes of Stubbs, Ferneley and de Dreux. This picture is being sold by the family for whom it was painted, and is now seen publicly for the first time.

Florence Evans is a Specialist in the British & Irish Art Department, London

Article appeared in the May/June 2006 issue of Christie's Magazine