Lockdales
Lot 507
Greetings card signed by Alfred Munnings, the front depicting a hunt scene with the handwritten inside message reading: 'To you all at Valley Farm with the very best of good wishes for Christmas and the New Year'. The card itself is very worn with considerable staining but the writing inside is entirely legible. ALFRED MUNNINGS: Munnings was born in Mendham, Suffolk, in 1878. At fourteen he became apprenticed at a Norwich printers where he worked for the next six years, designed advertising posters whilst attending Norwich Art School in his spare time. When his apprenticeship ended he dedicated himself to painting full-time and in 1899 had two pictures shown in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Associated with the Newlyn School, Munnings frequently painted rural scenes and, encouraged by his wife to accept commisions from society figures, he became best known for equine painting, often depicting horses hunting or racing. Assessed as unfit to join the army in 1917, Munnings took a civilian position near Reading where he processed thousands of Canadian horses en route to France, he was later assigned to a horse remount depot on the Western Front, where his talents were employed as war artist to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade. After the war ended the Royal Academy held a Canadian War Records Exhibition which included forty-five of Munning's canvases. In 1944 the artist was elected President of the Royal Academy of Art and was awarded a knighthood, he died at Castle House in Dedham, Essex, in July 1959 which is now a Munnings museum.
