SIR ALFRED JAMES MUNNINGS, P.R.A. (BRITISH 1878-1959)
SIR ALFRED JAMES MUNNINGS, P.R.A. (BRITISH 1878-1959)
SIR ALFRED JAMES MUNNINGS, P.R.A. (BRITISH 1878-1959)
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Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more Property of a Private Collector
SIR ALFRED JAMES MUNNINGS, P.R.A. (BRITISH 1878-1959)

The horse fair

Details
SIR ALFRED JAMES MUNNINGS, P.R.A. (BRITISH 1878-1959)
The horse fair
signed and dated 'A.J. Munnings 01' (lower right)
pencil, watercolour and bodycolour on paper
9 3/8 x 12 ¼ in. (24.8 x 31.1 cm.)
Provenance
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 3 July 2002, lot 14.
Private Collection, South Africa.
with Richard Green, London, where purchased by the present owner.
Special notice
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

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Sarah Reynolds
Sarah Reynolds Specialist, Head of Sale

Lot Essay


Early in his career, Munnings painted many country scenes of farm sales and horse fairs. In his autobiography, he describes a similar painting which is at the Castle Museum, Norwich: 'A Country Horse Fair. Bright sun, tents, crowds, and a black horse hustled by one man and held by another. For this Gray Junior dressed himself in one of those hikey horse dealer's suits which were made for me to my measurements at a particular kind of tailor's in Norwich. A vanished type, those masterful horse-dealers. They roused a horse, shaking a stiff, pink, cambric flag in its face, the horse on a long halter to give it play. A fellow in velvet and checks shouted, 'Lord Wellington didn't ride one like 'im in the battle of Waterloo! Every time he sets 'is foot 'e strikes a milestone!'' (A.J. Munnings, An Artist's Life, London, 1950, pp.142-43).
In many of these early paintings one sees the red-wheeled gig, the striped tents, and caravans, as well as the many local characters whom Munnings loved to paint.

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