An Artist’s Life

7
SIR ALFRED MUNNINGS
Mendham 1878 – 1959 Dedham
On the road
Signed and dated lower left: A.J. Munnings 1908
Canvas: 29 ½ × 50 in / 74.9 × 127 cm
Provenance:
Private collection, UK
Richard Green, London, 1989
Private collection, UK
Literature:
Sir Alfred Munnings, An Artist’s Life, London 1950, p.197
On loan from a private collection, UK
Two paintings by Munnings were accepted by the Royal Academy in
1908: The old gravel pit and the present work. Like The vagabonds, RA
1902 (private collection) it treats the theme of a string of ponies moving
through a lane. Whereas The vagabonds has an air of melancholy and
social displacement, with the gypsy horse-traders hunched against the late
autumn chill, On the road shows autumn at its most benign and golden.
Munnings’s Swainsthorpe groom, George Curzon, posed in the gig, with
Augereau in the shafts. ‘The pony is in a yellow-wheeled gig. George is
seated in it, wearing a sleeve waistcoat, a wide sun-hat and coloured scarf,
is leaning forward, elbows on knees, reading a newspaper as they move
along. Ponies on halters fastened to the gig-rail follow behind, others
trot on ahead. The picture was painted during a succession of bright
October days, the sun casting pale shadows, dust rising from the road
as the ponies and gig pass through a setting of autumn foliage’ 1 . The
chromatic challenge of dappled sunlight on a horse’s coat is something to
which Munnings often returned, notably in his studies of huntsmen in
woodland.
Drake, the horse-dealing sage from whom Munnings bought Augereau,
had opined ‘ “e ‘on’t ‘ev nothin’ to dew wi’ a cart or ‘arness, but what a
beautiful pony for a picture!” ’. It was Curzon who had taught Augereau
to draw the gig. The comfortable scene of On the road, with the ponies
finding their way home despite the genially inattentive driver, is
something of a tribute to George’s skill and patience.
1 An Artist’s Life, p.197.