Brown Jack

‘What a horse this was! Wise head, kind eyes, large ears, magnificent shoulders’
- Sir Alfred Munnings on Brown Jack

Executed in an edition of just five, Brown Jack is the only tabletop bronze by Sir Alfred Munnings, arguably the greatest equestrian artist of the 20^th century and President of the Royal Academy (1944–1949). Better known for his masterful canvases of race meetings, country life, and cavalry portraits, Munnings’ sculptural output is extraordinarily rare. This bronze is both a remarkable technical achievement and a deeply personal tribute to one of the most celebrated racehorses of the last century.

Munnings’ lifelong devotion to equestrian art is well documented. A self-taught draughtsman with a passion for anatomy, he studied horse skeletons at the South Kensington Museum and in his autobiography, devoted an entire chapter, fittingly titled Anatomy of the Horse, to the subject. While widely regarded as a painter, his sculptural practice was very limited, yet these reflect the same vitality, fluency of form, and keen observation that define his best canvases. Munnings’ first documented experience of sculpting was modelling a statuette of the white pony Augereau on a stand and armature given to him by his friend, sculptor Edwin Whitney-Smith, but the whereabouts of the final model is unknown. Aside from Augereau, he executed only two other sculptures. The first, a life-sized equestrian memorial to Edward Horner in Mells, Somerset (1920), earned him the commission from The Jockey Club for his second, a portrait of the then recently-retired champion stayer Brown Jack.

The racehorse lived in Munnings’ stables at Castle House in Dedham, Suffolk for six weeks, standing in the studio each day as the artist created the model for his portrait. Munnings later described it as ‘the most difficult problem I have ever tackled’, but also recalled the horse’s gentle nature: ‘A more unassuming, kind or modest horse-character never lived’ (Munnings, op. cit p.127). When Brown Jack finally left, the artist lamented, ‘No human being could have left such a gap as the horse left at Dedham.’ The bronze was originally intended to include Jack’s famed jockey Steve Donoghue, however, the final model so impressed Lord Hamilton of Dalzell, representing the Jockey Club, that it was cast showing the horse alone.

Only five casts of Brown Jack were ever produced. One is at Ascot Racecourse, where it is placed in the Royal Enclosure each year during the running of the Queen Alexandra Stakes and Brown Jack Handicap. Another went to Brown Jack’s owner, Sir Harold Wernher, housed at his home in Luton Hoo until it was sold at an auction of part of his collection in 1995 (Sotheby’s London, 24-25 May 1995, lot 128) . A third Munnings sold to Scotland, and is in a UK collection. The final two, including the present bronze, remained in the artist’s possession at Castle House, now The Munnings Art Museum.

‘One of the most popular racehorses to ever race on the English Turf’
- Picture Post, 7 July 1945

Brown Jack is among the most beloved racehorses in British racing history, running 55 times on the Flat and winning 18 races. Foaled in Ireland by Jackdaw out of Querquidella, he was bought as a three-year-old by Sir Harold Wernher and was initially trained by Aubrey Hastings to race over hurdles. However, he was soon switched to the Flat. Following Hastings’ death in 1929, Brown Jack’s training was entrusted to former jockey Ivor Anthony, who remained his trainer for the rest of his career. His crowning achievement was his six consecutive victories (1929–1934) in the Queen Alexandra Stakes at Ascot, the longest Flat race in Britain. To this day Brown Jack’s record remains unbroken. By his final race on the Friday of the Royal Ascot Meeting 1934, the horse’s name had become so widely-known and synonymous with the race that the Evening Standard poster boards simply read ‘Brown Jack Today’ (Lyle, op. cit. p. 188). Brown Jack was retired immediately after his triumphant sixth win but remained a household name. The following year he was photographed receiving a royal visit in his stall from the Duchess of York and the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. A decade later, Picture Post published a double page feature on Brown Jack’s retirement. Newsreel footage of his later years inspired Philip Larkin’s poem At Grass (1949). Today at Ascot, the Brown Jack Handicap run annually in July, continues to commemorate the horse’s achievements.

As the only known tabletop bronze by Munnings, Brown Jack is a rare and poignant masterwork - a synthesis of anatomical precision and personal reverence. It stands as a fitting tribute to one of the greatest racehorses of the last century, reaffirming the artist’s place not only as the pre-eminent equestrian painter of his time, but also as one of the most compelling interpreters of the horse in British art, across all media.