17: Sir Alfred Munnings Start Price USD 200,000.00 Current Price USD 400,000.00 Time Left - Bid Count 24 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Friday, August 01, 2008 End Time Friday, August 01, 2008 Location Portland, ME See more about '17: Sir Alfred Munnings' Description Current Lot Sir Alfred Munnings The Huntsman, A Bad Scent 20 X 24 inches A. J. Munnings 1913 l.l; also inscribed with the number "11258" and signed and titled as above verso George McCully Laughlin, Jr. and his wife Henrietta Speer Laughlin, Pittsburgh and thence by descent to their great grandchild, the current owner By 1913, Munnings had moved to Lamorna in Cornwall and had become a central character in the renowned artistic colony which orbited around the Newlyn School led by Stanhope Forbes. In addition to painting and a very busy social life, Munnings would frequently hunt with the Western Hounds based at Madron. In his autobiography, the artist reminisced about the wild, almost treeless landscape which was so different from the artists native Suffolk. Being in granite country, where the soil was shallow, huge masses of stone were built into walls; every wall on each side of every lane consisted of huge slabs of split granite ...In fact, this was the most picturesque and primitive place.(A.J. Munnings, An Artist's Life, Bungay, 1950, p. 271). The subjects for this painting are the teenager Ned Osborne and the Munningss famous mare Grey Tick whom the artist frequently used in his hunting pictures executed before the First World War. In this work, as in many of his pictures, the artist depicts his colorful subject against the backdrop of rugged granite by placing the grey mare and scarlet coat in contrast to the masses of dark rock and ground. Yet, the horse's coat, instead of remaining white, reflects the brown tones of the earth and blends into the scene harmoniously.The seventeen-year-old, Ned Osborne, who by this time had replace Shrimp as his model and groom, was a primitive Cornish youth a simple soul, who grew into a useful combination of groom-model, and posed for many a picture. He is featured in almost all of Munnings's hunting pictures from this period up until the First World War. He had the right coloured face and figure for a scarlet coat and black cap. Often did this patient fellow sit as a model for me and he liked it. (ibid. pp. 272-73). One of the most famous portraits being Going to the Meet (Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne) which has been reproduced often in literature and as a print. Interestingly, Munnings is one of the few artists who was as proficient in watercolor or gouache as in oil. He wrote about the medium in an article for the Old Water-Colour Society Club in 1932 So without a doubt, water-colour is so fascinating although so difficult and yet easier than oils, The difficulty for me of water-colour is the state; getting out of the box and cleaning it up and finding which colours are hardened stretching the thick paper , that is when you have found (good) paper you become lost, oblivious.....and so water-colour sketch goes on and is suggested, to my mind a better word than finished. He painted numerous watercolors during this period. Being a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, my six works sent there each year were sold, not for startling sums, but the prices were welcome enough at the time. Thus I was well able to afford to keep models and go hunting on them at the same time. (ibid. p. 278)We would like to thank Andrew C. Rose for his assistance in writing the catalogue entry above. Gouache and watercolor Place a Bid!