Landscape painting was Sir Alfred Munnings’s first love, and the artist would return to depicting the landscape of his native East Anglia throughout his career, emulating his great predecessor John Constable. In 1910-11 Munnings explored the Ringland Hills near Norwich with the gypsy boy Shrimp, a caravan and a string of ponies. ‘The gorse was in bloom,’ the artist wrote of this time in his memoirs, ‘to hesitate would be foolish’ (A. J. Munnings, An Artist’s Life, Bungay, 1950, p. 213).

Christie’s

Looking back on these trips, Munnings recalled: ‘I developed a passion for the gorgeous, blazing yellow of gorse in bloom, and looking back, I am sorrowful to think how little I indulged it and how many springs and summers have slipped away since then. No lying in the sun, breathing almond-scented airs, dreaming, listening to the hum of bees and the tiny snapping of gorse-beans bursting in the heat and stillness of noon’ (ibid., p. 212).

Christie’s

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Details

• Sir Alfred James Munnings, P.R.A., R.W.S. (British, 1878-1959)
• Gorse on Ringland Hills
• signed and dated ‘AJ Munnings/1910’ (lower right)
• oil on canvas
• 30 3/8 x 35 ¼ in. (77.2 x 90.2 cm.)
• Source: Christie’s
• Link: https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/sir-alfred-james-munnings-pra-rws-gorse-6187245-details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=6187245&sid=

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Alfred Munnings At Sunnyside

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~Sunnyside