Lot Essay
David Fuller writes of this lot, this is not any particular view but a typical Suffolk/Norfolk landsscape. The church is not unlike a smaller version of Long Melford, but again it cannot be identified. with a a specific building.
Munning used the same mare and pose in his oil painting 'The Edge of the Wood', illustrated opposite page 177 in 'The Second Burst' and although he does not reproduce 'A Little piece of England' in his autobiography, he does describe the watercolour on page 181 of the same volume. The mare was named 'Migrant', bred by Bob Wood in Norfolk, by 'Chatsworth' a sire belonging to King Edward VII that stood at Sandringham. Munnings purchased her from his old friend Dick Bullard who had bought her from a captain, who had given up trying to ride her in the show ring because she had such a light mouth and wasn't an easy ride. Munnings continues: 'Dark bay, sixteen hands, with a deep girth, she was a grand stamp. After a ride I spent half an hour with Bullard in an inn called The Rummer at Stoke Holy Cross, he asking a hundred for her and finaly accepting ninety... 'Migrant' carried my wife season after season, not only with the local hounds, but also with the Devon and Somerset. Often and often I used her as a model. She appeared in a watercolour 'A Little piece of England' which I sold for more than four times the price I paid for her'. (Private correspondance)
Munning used the same mare and pose in his oil painting 'The Edge of the Wood', illustrated opposite page 177 in 'The Second Burst' and although he does not reproduce 'A Little piece of England' in his autobiography, he does describe the watercolour on page 181 of the same volume. The mare was named 'Migrant', bred by Bob Wood in Norfolk, by 'Chatsworth' a sire belonging to King Edward VII that stood at Sandringham. Munnings purchased her from his old friend Dick Bullard who had bought her from a captain, who had given up trying to ride her in the show ring because she had such a light mouth and wasn't an easy ride. Munnings continues: 'Dark bay, sixteen hands, with a deep girth, she was a grand stamp. After a ride I spent half an hour with Bullard in an inn called The Rummer at Stoke Holy Cross, he asking a hundred for her and finaly accepting ninety... 'Migrant' carried my wife season after season, not only with the local hounds, but also with the Devon and Somerset. Often and often I used her as a model. She appeared in a watercolour 'A Little piece of England' which I sold for more than four times the price I paid for her'. (Private correspondance)