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Lot Essay
Munnings was fascinated by the Romany and gypsy communities, and spent many years observing their way of life, capturing the people, their horses and caravans in a series of vibrant paintings.
The present work is unusual in being so much of a portrait of a single man, as opposed to a more general view of the campsite or a depiction of the men at work. It is likely to date to the years before World War One when Munnings spent the early autumns in Hampshire with the hop-pickers.
The artist first visited Binsted in 1913 with his friend and fellow artist Olive Branson for the hop-picking season, which took place every autumn and attracted a crowd of itinerant workers. Munnings wrote afterwards that ‘more glamour and excitement were packed into those six weeks than a painter could well contend with…never in my life have I been so filled with a desire to work as I was then' (A.J. Munnings, An Artist's Life, London, 1950, p. 289).
It was with these pictures that Munnings first gained critical and financial success, through his Gipsies in Hampshire exhibition in 1920 at the Connell brothers' Bond Street gallery, and these works helped to establish him as a successful artist.
Although the man’s name has not been recorded he and Munnings must have struck up a friendship as the portrait is superbly executed and captures a real sense of the man’s personality.
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.
The present work is unusual in being so much of a portrait of a single man, as opposed to a more general view of the campsite or a depiction of the men at work. It is likely to date to the years before World War One when Munnings spent the early autumns in Hampshire with the hop-pickers.
The artist first visited Binsted in 1913 with his friend and fellow artist Olive Branson for the hop-picking season, which took place every autumn and attracted a crowd of itinerant workers. Munnings wrote afterwards that ‘more glamour and excitement were packed into those six weeks than a painter could well contend with…never in my life have I been so filled with a desire to work as I was then' (A.J. Munnings, An Artist's Life, London, 1950, p. 289).
It was with these pictures that Munnings first gained critical and financial success, through his Gipsies in Hampshire exhibition in 1920 at the Connell brothers' Bond Street gallery, and these works helped to establish him as a successful artist.
Although the man’s name has not been recorded he and Munnings must have struck up a friendship as the portrait is superbly executed and captures a real sense of the man’s personality.
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.