Sir Alfred J. Munnings, P.R.A. (British, 1878-1959)

Exmoor Ponies, Study No. 3

Details

Sir Alfred J. Munnings, P.R.A. (British, 1878-1959)
Exmoor Ponies, Study No. 3
signed 'A.J.Munnings' (lower left)
oil on panel
6 x 9 in. (17.2 x 24.7 cm.)

Provenance

with Leicester Galleries, London
Major R. O'Brien
Mrs. Shelagh Penny; sale, Sotheby's London, 6 February 1974
with Richard Green, London
Mr. Billington

Exhibited

London, Leicester Galleries, November, 1947, no. 91

Lot Essay

During World War II, Castle House near Dedham was requisitioned and the artist lived in Exmoor, where his wife kept a small cottage as a hunting box. "Ponies on the moor--I always wanted to paint them. Wild ponies wandering free over thousands of acres of wide undulating expanse. Herds of twenty or thirty, using their own territories--keeping to them, as birds do... Some of those small sketches, done in an hour, had a completeness and look of truth about them that one would never attain on a large size." (A. J. Munnings, The Finish, Bungay, 1952, pp. 108-110)