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

Gifted to the present owner by a private collector in September 2020.

A.J. Munnings, The Finish, Bungay 1952, reproduced opposite p. 104.

‘Of the many sounds of Exmoor – running water, cawing of rooks, songs of birds, barking of distant farm-dogs – the prevailing sound in the spring is the bleating of sheep. May it always be so!’¹

This delightful study of sheep and lambs was made in preparation for An Exmoor Shepherd (Christie’s, New York, 30 May 2002, lot 105) exhibited by Munnings at the Royal Academy in 1947. It was painted at the farm at Withypool kept by Mr Froude Bawden and his wife Gladys, of whom Munnings wrote; ‘How often I have seen this slim, bronzed farmer’s wife, wearing beret, breeches and stockings, flying home on the mare [named Harmony] like the wind – a winner. Gladys Bawden, an outstanding figure on Exmoor, worked in the dairy – making butter, on the farm keeping turkeys, fowls – pet ducks, pet hens, pet pigeons – terriers, ferrets.’² Gladys also looked after the sheep, including a particularly fine and productive ewe named Kirsty who gave birth to twenty-eight lambs and reared twenty-four. Munnings wrote; ‘I had a long spell of sheep studies in Bawden’s yard. “I know every one of ‘em in the picture” he would say.’³

A similar sketch of sheep and lambs was sold in these rooms (13 May 1987, lot 78) and there are other examples in the Munnings Art Museum at Dedham. A label on the reverse of the present picture suggests that it was included in the Munnings exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1956 but it does not appear to match the dimensions of either pictures entitled Study of Sheep in the show (nos 238 and 289).

‘I remind myself that once, sitting in the President’s chair at the Council meeting at the Academy, I was far away in the farmyard painting sheep. Arriving late at night from London, I was at the farm next morning, seeing the picture rehearsed afresh – painting Bawden on his pony, afterwards trying to do the passing flock, which he and his wife and dogs drove slowly through the yard again and again… Working in close proximity to these creatures, watching the ewes peacefully chewing their cud, the lambs resting, suckling or playing around, I became doubly aware of these miracles of Nature.’⁴

¹ Sir Alfred Munnings, The Finish, Bungay 1952, p. 102.

² Munnings 1952, pp. 102–3.

³ Munnings 1952, p. 105.

⁴ Munnings 1952, p. 103.