.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Munnings was fascinated with racing from an early stage in his career, and regularly painted and exhibited works on the theme throughout his life. As well as portraying more celebrated moments such as the start and finish of a race, or the glamour of the paddock, he produced a beautiful series capturing racehorses at exercise during the 1940s and 50s.
During this period Munnings regularly drove over from Castle House in Dedham to watch the horses exercising on Warren Hill and Newmarket Heath, arriving early in the morning to witness the grooms and their mounts out on the gallops. Once there he would fill pages of sketchbooks and execute rapid studies on small panels (fig. 1) as he observed ‘these experts on fit horses full of life and mettle at the start of the canters and gallops. To raise themselves on their knees, many of them hang on the rein... – the horse with head pulled round and high in the air.' (A.J. Munnings, The Finish, London, 1952, pp. 181-182).
Early Morning, Newmarket perfectly encapsulates that moment as the horses and their riders start to pull away on the gallops. The painting forms the culmination of a project Munnings worked on over a fine summer in 1947. This was recalled in an evocative passage in the final volume of his autobiography, The Finish:
‘There was other work at Newmarket. Filling pages of notebooks at the canters on Warren Hill before and after breakfast. I began each afternoon – with the scene fresh in mind – setting out ideas on three six-foot panels: doors of an old wardrobe from Lady Ludlow's house by the plantations at the top of Warren Hill. These excellent doors (fig. 2) were discovered in the premises of a painter and decorator in Newmarket. Hanging one of the panels on a shady wall in a friend's garden behind his house, I worked in the most perfect light, to the chirruping of sparrows as they washed themselves in the shallow bath almost at my feet, and the sound of a blacksmith's anvil across the road. Unruly horses starting up the canter, one after another, a string of horses coming off the Heath were the subjects. My mind was literally steeped in horses. The long shape of the panels was new and interesting.’ (op cit., p. 182).
This elongated shape clearly inspired Munnings to produce some of his finest late paintings. Whilst a series of smaller studies relating to the three former wardrobe doors exist in private collections and in the collection of the Munnings Museum, the three final pieces are instantly recognisable by their dimensions, all being over 182 cm. in length. One, referenced by Munnings as ‘a string of horses coming off the Heath’, remains in the collection of the Munnings Museum (fig. 3.).
However, the two of ‘unruly horses starting up the canter’, were both sent to the Royal Academy in 1950, as Early Morning, Newmarket, no. 203 (2) and no. 207 (1). A careful study of the Royal Academy Illustrated for 1950 reveals no. 207 to have been the version depicting the dappled grey on the far left. This means that the present picture must be no. 203, the version illustrated by Munnings in The Finish.
The version listed as no. 207 was later sold to T.H. Lawley and lent by him to Munnings’ 1956 retrospective at the Royal Academy. Its present location is currently unknown, although a smaller version was sold in at Christie’s, London, 16 June 2010, lot 136. It is not known when the present work left Munnings’ possession; it was sold by the Richard Green Gallery to the father of the present owner in 1969 and has remained in the family ever since.
We are grateful to Lorian Peralta-Ramos, the Curatorial staff at The Munnings Museum and Tristram Lewis for their assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
During this period Munnings regularly drove over from Castle House in Dedham to watch the horses exercising on Warren Hill and Newmarket Heath, arriving early in the morning to witness the grooms and their mounts out on the gallops. Once there he would fill pages of sketchbooks and execute rapid studies on small panels (fig. 1) as he observed ‘these experts on fit horses full of life and mettle at the start of the canters and gallops. To raise themselves on their knees, many of them hang on the rein... – the horse with head pulled round and high in the air.' (A.J. Munnings, The Finish, London, 1952, pp. 181-182).
Early Morning, Newmarket perfectly encapsulates that moment as the horses and their riders start to pull away on the gallops. The painting forms the culmination of a project Munnings worked on over a fine summer in 1947. This was recalled in an evocative passage in the final volume of his autobiography, The Finish:
‘There was other work at Newmarket. Filling pages of notebooks at the canters on Warren Hill before and after breakfast. I began each afternoon – with the scene fresh in mind – setting out ideas on three six-foot panels: doors of an old wardrobe from Lady Ludlow's house by the plantations at the top of Warren Hill. These excellent doors (fig. 2) were discovered in the premises of a painter and decorator in Newmarket. Hanging one of the panels on a shady wall in a friend's garden behind his house, I worked in the most perfect light, to the chirruping of sparrows as they washed themselves in the shallow bath almost at my feet, and the sound of a blacksmith's anvil across the road. Unruly horses starting up the canter, one after another, a string of horses coming off the Heath were the subjects. My mind was literally steeped in horses. The long shape of the panels was new and interesting.’ (op cit., p. 182).
This elongated shape clearly inspired Munnings to produce some of his finest late paintings. Whilst a series of smaller studies relating to the three former wardrobe doors exist in private collections and in the collection of the Munnings Museum, the three final pieces are instantly recognisable by their dimensions, all being over 182 cm. in length. One, referenced by Munnings as ‘a string of horses coming off the Heath’, remains in the collection of the Munnings Museum (fig. 3.).
However, the two of ‘unruly horses starting up the canter’, were both sent to the Royal Academy in 1950, as Early Morning, Newmarket, no. 203 (2) and no. 207 (1). A careful study of the Royal Academy Illustrated for 1950 reveals no. 207 to have been the version depicting the dappled grey on the far left. This means that the present picture must be no. 203, the version illustrated by Munnings in The Finish.
The version listed as no. 207 was later sold to T.H. Lawley and lent by him to Munnings’ 1956 retrospective at the Royal Academy. Its present location is currently unknown, although a smaller version was sold in at Christie’s, London, 16 June 2010, lot 136. It is not known when the present work left Munnings’ possession; it was sold by the Richard Green Gallery to the father of the present owner in 1969 and has remained in the family ever since.
We are grateful to Lorian Peralta-Ramos, the Curatorial staff at The Munnings Museum and Tristram Lewis for their assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.