SIR ALFRED JAMES MUNNINGS, P.R.A., R.W.S. (BRITISH, 1878-1959)

The present work was probably painted in the 1920s when Munnings was travelling around the country painting commissions. The free, minimal brushstrokes of both the portrait and the landscape study on the reverse imply that the painting may have been used as a compositional study for a larger work, or that it was a scene that caught Munnings' eye and which he felt he had to capture in paint. The pose and positioning of the horse in the landscape is reminiscent of works such as Portrait of Jaunty, in the park at Toulston, Tadcaster (1926, Private Collection) painted for William and Beryl Riley-Smith.

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