Lot 66
  • 66

Sir Alfred James Munnings, P.R.A., R.W.S.

Estimate
300,000 - 500,000 GBP
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Description

  • September Afternoon
  • signed l.l.: A J. Munnings
  • oil on canvas
  • 63.5 by 76cm., 25 by 30in.

Provenance

Probably purchased from Ian MacNicol Fine Art, Glasgow in the 1960s by the parents of the present owner

Exhibited

Probably Royal Academy, 1946, no.148 as The White Canoe;
Sotheby's, London, An English Idyll - Works from Private and Public Collections and the Sir Alfred Munnings Art Museum, 2001, no.104

Condition

The following condition report has been prepared by Hamish Dewar Ltd: UNCONDITIONAL AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE Structural Condition The canvas is unlined and is structurally sound and secure. The right vertical turnover edge has been folded out by the artist to extend the composition, which was a common practice by Munnings. The earlier tacking edge is therefore visible (approximately 1 cm in width) by the right vertical framing edge. Paint surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer which would appear to have been applied over earlier discoloured varnish layers. Inspection under ultra-violet light confirms that the underlying varnish layers have discoloured and suggests that cleaning would be beneficial. I would be confident that cleaning would be worthwhile and would give greater depth to the paint surface. No retouchings are identifiable under ultra-violet light. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in very good and stable condition and should respond well to cleaning and revarnishing.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Catalogue Note

‘Until I pass out I shall always long for the river and the warbler’s song going on and on, and now and then the wind through the willows turning the surface blue and purple.’

THE FINISH
Sir Alfred Munnings, 1952, p.297

The river always held a fascination for Munnings and the joy of rowing or punting was expressed in early pictures such as Stranded of 1898 (Bristol City Art Gallery) and Idle Moments of 1906 (Christie’s, 13 December 2012, lot 51). Munnings had grown-up in Mendham, where his father was a miller whose mill was on the Waveney river. The river and its banks were Munnings’ childhood playground and happy memories of the water lasted with him his entire life and informed his painting until the end. Time and time again he returned to subjects of the carefree days beside, or on, the river and they were as fascinating to him as his equestrian subjects. Painted with an Impressionistic bravura with glimmering light and colour, the pictures of women in boats are among Munnings’ most engaging pictures. In the present picture we see two beautiful young women (another fascination for the artist) enjoying a hot, summer afternoon canoeing along the Stour through water punctuated with water-lilies and shaded by overhanging willow. One of the girls is perhaps enjoying the day more than the other and sits back to relax whilst spinning her sunlit Chinese parasol to throw up a spray of cooling water, as her companion steers their leisurely course.

The first two of Munnings’ pictures depicting young women gliding through placid Dedham river-scapes, were painted in 1924. Both were titled The White Canoe and were painted two days apart; ‘The scene comes back. Willows, dark reflections in the deep pool at the bend of the stream above the wooden bridge; my wife and a friend, both twenty-years younger then, in summer dresses of the day, seated in a Canadian canoe, which was fastened with cords fore and aft to overhanging boughs. A long willow-pole, the thickest end against the bank, and the thinnest with a crotch fixed to the canoe, kept its place out in the river… the next day I did another and larger canvas under the same conditions and weather. What artist could resist such a stillness in the air, such unchangeable grey skies, such peace? The first canoe-picture went to the Academy of 1924, the second attempt to the International Exhibition of Pittsburgh the same year, where it hung in the vicinity of some malicious, venomous-looking pieces of painted linoleum in frames, catalogued as pictures. However, in spite of its neighbours, it was sold. A reward for my preliminaries at Flatford.’ (Sir Alfred Munnings, The Second Burst, 1951, p.158)

The present work is one of the finest of a series of pictures entitled September Afternoon painted from 1938 onwards. According to a label on the reverse of the present picture, it was painted in 1946 and exhibited at the Royal Academy. It is therefore probably identifiable as The White Canoe, the penultimate of the series. Munnings refers to this series in the last volume of his memoirs, '...Willows, the river, two girls drifting in a canoe-an old theme of past years taken up again. Sunlight streaming through a transparent pink Japanese sunshade-exquisite-a challenge to the eyes. So fine was the September weather that I did many pictures on that spot. Later a canoe was placed here on the lawn where a girl sat holding the sunshade until I knew the subtle lighting by heart. Both girls – nieces of a local doctor – were later acting new parts in fresh settings. They went into war work' (Sir Alfred Munnings, The Finish, 1952, p. 60). The actual canoe depicted in this painting is preserved at the Sir Alfred Munnings Art Museum where there are also eight oil sketches for the various versions of September Afternoon, two of which depict a boy canoeist.