Lot Essay
Ned Osborne, the seventeen year old groom-cum-model who replaced Old Norman and Nobby Gray, is depicted here out of his customary scarlet coat and riding bareback in shirt sleeves at a local Zennor fair. The horse is 'Grey Tick' which Munnings had bought in Newlyn in 1913, mostly for its colour as he found it challenging to paint the grey against grey skies, expressing form in subtle tones.
A larger and more finished painting, 'The Grey Horse', begun in 1913 and worked at again in 1923 from another grey pony, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1924 (no.98).
(see J. Goodman, What a Go! The Life of Alfred Munnings, London, 1988, pp.105-06).
A larger and more finished painting, 'The Grey Horse', begun in 1913 and worked at again in 1923 from another grey pony, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1924 (no.98).
(see J. Goodman, What a Go! The Life of Alfred Munnings, London, 1988, pp.105-06).