Study of 'Moneda', a Polo Pony

Polo subjects appear relatively rarely in Munnings's oeuvre; only a handful of such paintings exist, and these are often for important patrons such as Devereaux Milburn, Robert Strawbridge, the Riley-Smiths, and of course Baron Raoul von Schroeders, for whom the present work was painted. The Baron was the captain of the Chilean National polo team, and commissioned Munnings to paint an equestrian portrait of his son, Arturo, while the family was staying in Deauville. In his autobiography, Munnings describes the genesis of this commission, 'And how, you may ask, did I get to Deauville? I was staying at the Normandie Hotel with a Baron Schroeders, painting his boy on a polo pony. The father played polo everywhere, and 'followed the sun', as he said' (see A.J. Munnings, The Finish, Bungay, 1950, p. 203). The finished portrait, Arturo von Schroeders on a Polo Pony in a Landscape, was sold at Christie's, London, 14 June 2000, lot 29, where it was accompanied by another, freely handled study of Arturo von Schroeders riding a bay polo pony (lot 30 in that same sale).

This branch of the von Schroeders family, originally from Courland in Russia, moved to Chile during the eighteenth century after one of the family's forebears was appointed the first Russian consul to Santiago. The young Arturo later became very committed to winter sports, being an active member of the International Ski Federation (I.S.F.) and contributed significantly to Grenoble being chosen as the host city for the 1968 Winter Olympic games.

We are grateful to Lorian Peralta-Ramos, Tristram Lewis and the Curatorial staff at The Munnings Museum for their assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.