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Lot Essay
Dating from the end of the Second World War, February Thaw was painted near Munnings’ retreat at Withypool when the artist was dividing his time between Exmoor and London. In many ways it encapsulates the artist at his most bucolically romantic and is a counterpoint to his commitments as President of the Royal Academy in the war-torn capital.
Munnings, a countryman at heart, had a particular love of the dramatic and distinctive landscapes around Exmoor in Devon and Withypool in particular, where he and his wife had a house. The works that Munnings produced there have an especially intimate and personal feel since typically they were unsolicited and painted purely for pleasure. In 1940 Castle House, in Dedham, their principal residence, was requisitioned by the army and they decamped to Exmoor on a more permanent basis.
He was inspired to capture the local landscape under the ever-changing light conditions. He studied cloud formations and their light and shadowy effects on the landscape below. ‘Am I losing hold on Suffolk and Norfolk?’ he wrote ‘Is this wild country casting its net over me? Exmoor, with its storms of 'untimely violence' and its gales of wind and rain, can change its face and smile, resuming 'God's gentle, sleeping peace,' so that in the end everybody would stay if they could, or come again as they do.' (Sir A.J. Munnings, An Artist's Life, Bungay, 1950, p. 87).
Munnings recorded the creation of the picture in his autobiography recalling ‘One afternoon, walking down a narrow cart-track to (Froude) Bawden’s farm, looking, as always for visible beauty I saw a scene, now enhanced by the thawing snow and a muddy track. The white pony [called Moonraker] – patiently standing with a group of cattle by the gate next to a stone building, waiting to be let in. I was looking down the slope at this – breathless, surprised...I was, as they say, on the run – all alight to paint the group by the gate… As it grew dusk the picture was all but done' (A.J. Munnings, The Finish, loc. cit.). Munnings acknowledged the help of the farmer’s wife, Mrs Bawden, in keeping the horse and cattle still, and the painting hung in her parlour until, seeing it again several months later ‘… so well did I like the look of that picture that I made it one of my six for the Academy that year, and it was brought on Private View Day by Lord Camrose, an old friend’ (Munnings, loc.cit.).
Munnings, a countryman at heart, had a particular love of the dramatic and distinctive landscapes around Exmoor in Devon and Withypool in particular, where he and his wife had a house. The works that Munnings produced there have an especially intimate and personal feel since typically they were unsolicited and painted purely for pleasure. In 1940 Castle House, in Dedham, their principal residence, was requisitioned by the army and they decamped to Exmoor on a more permanent basis.
He was inspired to capture the local landscape under the ever-changing light conditions. He studied cloud formations and their light and shadowy effects on the landscape below. ‘Am I losing hold on Suffolk and Norfolk?’ he wrote ‘Is this wild country casting its net over me? Exmoor, with its storms of 'untimely violence' and its gales of wind and rain, can change its face and smile, resuming 'God's gentle, sleeping peace,' so that in the end everybody would stay if they could, or come again as they do.' (Sir A.J. Munnings, An Artist's Life, Bungay, 1950, p. 87).
Munnings recorded the creation of the picture in his autobiography recalling ‘One afternoon, walking down a narrow cart-track to (Froude) Bawden’s farm, looking, as always for visible beauty I saw a scene, now enhanced by the thawing snow and a muddy track. The white pony [called Moonraker] – patiently standing with a group of cattle by the gate next to a stone building, waiting to be let in. I was looking down the slope at this – breathless, surprised...I was, as they say, on the run – all alight to paint the group by the gate… As it grew dusk the picture was all but done' (A.J. Munnings, The Finish, loc. cit.). Munnings acknowledged the help of the farmer’s wife, Mrs Bawden, in keeping the horse and cattle still, and the painting hung in her parlour until, seeing it again several months later ‘… so well did I like the look of that picture that I made it one of my six for the Academy that year, and it was brought on Private View Day by Lord Camrose, an old friend’ (Munnings, loc.cit.).