Munnings

I first saw a framed print of The Horse Fair, 1904 by Sir Alfred Munnings hanging in a dark recess of my local pub back in 1990. I used to look at it every time I went in, such was my admiration for it. Four years later, on a visit to the Cotswolds, I was thumbing through a set of prints in an gift shop and there it was (well, another copy of it), and I knew I had to have it. It was probably the best twenty quid or so I ever spent as I never get tired of looking at it. One day I hope to visit Castle House in Dedham, where a lot of the Munnings originals are. To see the Horse Fair original, oil on canvas 30" x 50", would be something else. But what about the man himself? What about this equine-loving artist who had earned himself a knighthood out of his own raw talent?
There is a very good book available, written by Jean Goodman, called 'A J, The Life of Alfred Munnings 1878-1959'. It's all in there, if you want to know about one of the great English eccentrics and loose cannons of the art world. If you like art and horses, you'll love it. But the man himself . . . therein lies the real entertainment.