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Lot Essay
In addition to painting equine subjects and landscapes, Munnings frequently painted other farm animals such as pigs and cows. These were obviously more than just a passing interest since there exist well over thirty canvases that depict cows, one of which is a miniature of a Fresian Bull that hangs in Queen Mary's dolls house in Windsor Castle. Munnings even went as far as to state, 'To my mind, a cow, although perhaps not so romantic and beautiful an animal as the horse, is a better subject for the artist.' (A.J. Munnings, An Artist's Life, Bungay, 1950, p. 280).
The black and white cow featured in this painting is described in the artist's autobiography, 'probably one of my best and most profitable deals I ever made in my life was when I bought a cow as a model for fourteen pounds. She was a cross between a Fresian cow and a Jersey bull, with the usual white marking on the forehead, a black neck and her shoulder was a broad band of white and a large pattern of black and dun, with more white on her quarters; a most perfect model to paint, after Mr. Jory - the complacent, comfortable landlord of the Lamorna Inn - had trained her to lead on a halter.' (op. cit., p. 280).
In 1911 Munnings left Norfolk for Cornwall, where he became associated with the Newlyn School, founded by Stanhope Forbes. Munnings became the social leader of the group which included many young artists who attended classes as well as established painters like Laura and John Knight, John Lamorna Birch, Dod and Ernest Proctor, Harold Hervey and Charles Simpson. The present work was painted in 1912 and the scene is recognisable as a stream just beyond the studio of friend and fellow artist, Lamorna Birch, and is on the road towards Munnings' own home and studio in Cornwall.
Munnings describes his delight in these painting expeditions, 'She [the cow] could be lead, with one or two following, down to the stream or wherever I was painting her. There they would group themselves and stand quietly, peacefully chewing their cuds for hours. A pleasant way of life, painting to the sweet music of water running over stones and pebbles; the high sunlight piercing the foliage, flashing on leaf and stalk - throwing pools of light on transparent, rippling, sandy shallows. What colour there was in the running water, the reflections, the sunlit ripples; what subtle blue passages in the shadowed current! I see myself with a thirty-by-twenty-five-inch canvas - a beautiful canvas from Lanham's with a surface on which any artist would have loved to paint - working away at the two contented cows standing placidly in the stream.' (ibid).
Munnings' descriptions of his painting methods would indicate that this work was probably produced en plein air, 'With the subject in front of me, I was happiest, and here, undisturbed in a quiet valley, I painted quick impressions of cows and stream, finally settling down to a longer exercise in paint on a fifty-by-forty-inch canvas.' (op. cit. pp. 280-1).
This work will be included in Lorian Peralta-Ramos' forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the works of Sir Alfred Munnings.
The black and white cow featured in this painting is described in the artist's autobiography, 'probably one of my best and most profitable deals I ever made in my life was when I bought a cow as a model for fourteen pounds. She was a cross between a Fresian cow and a Jersey bull, with the usual white marking on the forehead, a black neck and her shoulder was a broad band of white and a large pattern of black and dun, with more white on her quarters; a most perfect model to paint, after Mr. Jory - the complacent, comfortable landlord of the Lamorna Inn - had trained her to lead on a halter.' (op. cit., p. 280).
In 1911 Munnings left Norfolk for Cornwall, where he became associated with the Newlyn School, founded by Stanhope Forbes. Munnings became the social leader of the group which included many young artists who attended classes as well as established painters like Laura and John Knight, John Lamorna Birch, Dod and Ernest Proctor, Harold Hervey and Charles Simpson. The present work was painted in 1912 and the scene is recognisable as a stream just beyond the studio of friend and fellow artist, Lamorna Birch, and is on the road towards Munnings' own home and studio in Cornwall.
Munnings describes his delight in these painting expeditions, 'She [the cow] could be lead, with one or two following, down to the stream or wherever I was painting her. There they would group themselves and stand quietly, peacefully chewing their cuds for hours. A pleasant way of life, painting to the sweet music of water running over stones and pebbles; the high sunlight piercing the foliage, flashing on leaf and stalk - throwing pools of light on transparent, rippling, sandy shallows. What colour there was in the running water, the reflections, the sunlit ripples; what subtle blue passages in the shadowed current! I see myself with a thirty-by-twenty-five-inch canvas - a beautiful canvas from Lanham's with a surface on which any artist would have loved to paint - working away at the two contented cows standing placidly in the stream.' (ibid).
Munnings' descriptions of his painting methods would indicate that this work was probably produced en plein air, 'With the subject in front of me, I was happiest, and here, undisturbed in a quiet valley, I painted quick impressions of cows and stream, finally settling down to a longer exercise in paint on a fifty-by-forty-inch canvas.' (op. cit. pp. 280-1).
This work will be included in Lorian Peralta-Ramos' forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the works of Sir Alfred Munnings.