.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Munnings' 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 own choosing, he roamed the countryside recording the changing effects of light and colour in the landscape, particularly near water.
Cutting Reeds is one of a series of works that Munnings executed of men cutting reeds probably near his house at Mendham. Another work, Harvesters and Reed Cutters in a Landscape was sold Chrisitie's New York, 1 December 1999, lot 147 ($95,000).
Kenneth McConkey writing of the present work compares Henry La Thangue's 'staccato brushwork, aimed at conveying effects of light' with Munnings' similarly terse handling in Cutting Reeds, 'Here the imagery of Emerson's photography is given an immediacy... When he [Munnings] and La Thangue used to meet at the Chelsea Arts Club, they rhapsodized about finding a quiet old-world village where real country models could be found (K. McKonkey, British Impressionism, 1989, pp. 128, 132).
Cutting Reeds is one of a series of works that Munnings executed of men cutting reeds probably near his house at Mendham. Another work, Harvesters and Reed Cutters in a Landscape was sold Chrisitie's New York, 1 December 1999, lot 147 ($95,000).
Kenneth McConkey writing of the present work compares Henry La Thangue's 'staccato brushwork, aimed at conveying effects of light' with Munnings' similarly terse handling in Cutting Reeds, 'Here the imagery of Emerson's photography is given an immediacy... When he [Munnings] and La Thangue used to meet at the Chelsea Arts Club, they rhapsodized about finding a quiet old-world village where real country models could be found (K. McKonkey, British Impressionism, 1989, pp. 128, 132).