Lot Essay
David Fuller writes of this lot ' Munnings wrote in the first volume of his autobiography 'Ringland on the west side of Norwich was situated in one of the loveliest districts of all the pleasant country surrounding that old city'.
He had first got to know, and fall in love with, the area on bicycle trips whilst working as a lithographic artist in Norwich. In 1910 he again visited Ringland on a short painting trip but in 1911 he planned another longer and more serious painting expedition. The gorse was in bloom; to heistate was foolish. For twenty pounds I bought a beautiful old white Welsh mare with a curly mane and tail and Arab looking countenance. Her muzzle was blue black, the same tint surrounded her patient eye.
Accompanied by his groom Bob and Shrimp, 'the best model I ever had', they set out for Ringland Hills. 'The Welsh mare was in the sticks of the caravan, the white pony Augerau at her side, Shrimp with a yellow handkerchief round his neck, was in charge of them. For weeks I worked with little disturbance, free and happy on those hills, painting the beauty of the gorse and sunlight on the ponies. Days flew by. At last the morning came for our departure. The caravan loaded with pictures, drawn by the two white ponies rumbled onto the road. The pictures I painted at this period were sold, many at my first exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in London in 1913 (1912) (incorrect date in autobiography)
The best known painting resulting from this trip The coming Storm 1910' now in the National Gallery of New South Wales, shows Shrimp riding the same Welsh mare as the central figure. A study for this, dated 1911, was exhibited at the Royal Academy's Retrospective of the artist's work, 1956, no. 63. (private correspondence)
He had first got to know, and fall in love with, the area on bicycle trips whilst working as a lithographic artist in Norwich. In 1910 he again visited Ringland on a short painting trip but in 1911 he planned another longer and more serious painting expedition. The gorse was in bloom; to heistate was foolish. For twenty pounds I bought a beautiful old white Welsh mare with a curly mane and tail and Arab looking countenance. Her muzzle was blue black, the same tint surrounded her patient eye.
Accompanied by his groom Bob and Shrimp, 'the best model I ever had', they set out for Ringland Hills. 'The Welsh mare was in the sticks of the caravan, the white pony Augerau at her side, Shrimp with a yellow handkerchief round his neck, was in charge of them. For weeks I worked with little disturbance, free and happy on those hills, painting the beauty of the gorse and sunlight on the ponies. Days flew by. At last the morning came for our departure. The caravan loaded with pictures, drawn by the two white ponies rumbled onto the road. The pictures I painted at this period were sold, many at my first exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in London in 1913 (1912) (incorrect date in autobiography)
The best known painting resulting from this trip The coming Storm 1910' now in the National Gallery of New South Wales, shows Shrimp riding the same Welsh mare as the central figure. A study for this, dated 1911, was exhibited at the Royal Academy's Retrospective of the artist's work, 1956, no. 63. (private correspondence)