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Lot Essay
A great hunting enthusiast himself, the red-coated huntsman is one of the most recognisable motifs in Munnings’s œuvre. His mastery of equine anatomy emphasises the strength of the horse and imbues a sense of nobility. The huntsman is silhouetted against the brooding and stormy sky and the low winter sunlight reflects off the grey hunter, making the horse and rider stand proud against the landscape.
The horse depicted is Munnings's favourite grey hunter Isaac, who he remembered nostalgically in his autobiography: 'I grow sad when I think of the days I have had out on him with hounds. He certainly was a fine pattern of a horse, belonging to the days of Alken’ (A.J. Munnings, An Artist's Life, London, 1950, p. 142). 'Were I to enumerate all the pictures in which that grey has appeared I should need many pages.’
Munnings first encountered Isaac when he went to Ireland in 1923 to paint Isaac Bell, the celebrated American huntsman and breeder of the Kilkenny foxhounds, considered the finest in the country. He was very taken with Bell’s grey hunter and painted him several times, including as the centrepiece of Horse Fair in Kilkenny which was accepted as his diploma work following his election to the Royal Academy in 1925 (Private Collection).
Not long after his return to England Munnings ran into Isaac Bell at Tattersalls, where Bell enquired as to when his picture would be ready. Munnings replied that it would be going to the Royal Academy and asked what had happened to 'that nice grey horse' and whether he wanted to sell him. Bell quickly responded 'You knock a hundred off the picture when I pay you and I’ll send him over right away' (Munnings, op.cit, p. 141.). The deal was done and Isaac went on to feature in other celebrated pictures including My Horse is My Friend, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1923.
An oil sketch for the present picture, A Huntsman on a Grey Horse by “Goblet”, is illustrated in A. J. Munnings, Pictures of Horses and English Life, 2nd ed., London, 1939, p. 41, no.14. A variant of the composition, with fewer hounds and a slightly sketchier air, called The Huntsman, was sold in these Rooms on 29 July 2020, lot 67 for £162,500 (fig. 1).
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.
The horse depicted is Munnings's favourite grey hunter Isaac, who he remembered nostalgically in his autobiography: 'I grow sad when I think of the days I have had out on him with hounds. He certainly was a fine pattern of a horse, belonging to the days of Alken’ (A.J. Munnings, An Artist's Life, London, 1950, p. 142). 'Were I to enumerate all the pictures in which that grey has appeared I should need many pages.’
Munnings first encountered Isaac when he went to Ireland in 1923 to paint Isaac Bell, the celebrated American huntsman and breeder of the Kilkenny foxhounds, considered the finest in the country. He was very taken with Bell’s grey hunter and painted him several times, including as the centrepiece of Horse Fair in Kilkenny which was accepted as his diploma work following his election to the Royal Academy in 1925 (Private Collection).
Not long after his return to England Munnings ran into Isaac Bell at Tattersalls, where Bell enquired as to when his picture would be ready. Munnings replied that it would be going to the Royal Academy and asked what had happened to 'that nice grey horse' and whether he wanted to sell him. Bell quickly responded 'You knock a hundred off the picture when I pay you and I’ll send him over right away' (Munnings, op.cit, p. 141.). The deal was done and Isaac went on to feature in other celebrated pictures including My Horse is My Friend, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1923.
An oil sketch for the present picture, A Huntsman on a Grey Horse by “Goblet”, is illustrated in A. J. Munnings, Pictures of Horses and English Life, 2nd ed., London, 1939, p. 41, no.14. A variant of the composition, with fewer hounds and a slightly sketchier air, called The Huntsman, was sold in these Rooms on 29 July 2020, lot 67 for £162,500 (fig. 1).
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.