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Lot Essay
Munnings's artistic training was rooted in the Norwich School exemplified by an earlier generation of great landscape painters. It instilled in Munnings, above all, a love of the English countryside. During his formative years, while he was free to paint subjects of his choosing, he roamed the countryside recording the changing effects of light and colour in the landscape, particularly near water.
The subject of a white cow appears in a number of Munnings's works from this period. He wrote 'To my mind, a cow although perhaps not so romantic and beautiful an animal as the horse, is a better subject for an artist' (see A. J. Munnings, An Artist's Life, Bungay, 1950, p. 280).
During these early years in Norfolk, Munnings often exchanged his paintings with local tradesmen for goods. In the first volume of his autobiography Munnings describes how he had furnished his rooms with an 'old Turkey carpet and rugs from Boswell's (in exchange for a picture)'. Sam and Jim Boswell dealt in antiques and pictures from a shop in London Road, Norwich and were enthusiastic patrons of the young artist. Sensing his commercial potential, the Boswells became regular buyers of his work which they would sell on to their clients. Despite this they clearly held back some of his best pictures from this period for themselves, of which this, hitherto unrecorded work, is an example.
The subject of a white cow appears in a number of Munnings's works from this period. He wrote 'To my mind, a cow although perhaps not so romantic and beautiful an animal as the horse, is a better subject for an artist' (see A. J. Munnings, An Artist's Life, Bungay, 1950, p. 280).
During these early years in Norfolk, Munnings often exchanged his paintings with local tradesmen for goods. In the first volume of his autobiography Munnings describes how he had furnished his rooms with an 'old Turkey carpet and rugs from Boswell's (in exchange for a picture)'. Sam and Jim Boswell dealt in antiques and pictures from a shop in London Road, Norwich and were enthusiastic patrons of the young artist. Sensing his commercial potential, the Boswells became regular buyers of his work which they would sell on to their clients. Despite this they clearly held back some of his best pictures from this period for themselves, of which this, hitherto unrecorded work, is an example.