- 51
Sir Alfred Munnings, P.R.A., R.W.S.
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Description
Sir Alfred Munnings, P.R.A., R.W.S.
1878-1959
lord astor's 'high stakes' with sir gordon richards up at newmarket
signed
oil on canvas
71 by 91.5 cm., 28 by 36 in.
!1650000-2450000
This painting was the last commission Munnings painted for Lord Astor who bred High Stakes (by Lord Derby's 1933 Derby winner Hyperion out of Lord Astor's 1929 Oaks winner Pennycomequick) - winner of 32 races and 21602 pounds. Foaled in 1942, High Stakes was gelded at the end of his two-year old season due, according to his trainer, Joe Lawson, to his aggressive sexuality, which was typical of Hyperion's offspring.
Sir Gordon Richards was the leading jockey of his generation and rode 4870 winners. In addition to being Champion Jockey 26 times, he won the Two Thousand Guineas three times, the One Thousand Guineas three times, the Derby once, the Oaks twice, and the St. Leger five times, as well as riding an amazing 269 winners in 1947.
Starting in 1920 with Buchan (coll. The Jockey Club, Newmarket), Munnings painted many racehorses for Lord Astor including Saucy Sue, Lee Bridge, Short Story, Traffic Light, Rhodes Scholar, and Early School, as well as a number of family portraits, like J.J.Astor, W.W. Astor with the Oxford University Drag Hounds, and Lord Astor at Cliveden. In Munnings's autobiography, the author muses about painting High Stakes's sire, the 1933 Derby winner Hyperion, for Lord Derby. Interestingly he also painted High Stakes' dam, the 1929 Oaks winner Pennycomequick, whose portrait Lord Astor had reproduced as a print to give to his friends. The present work represented something of a triumph for Lord Astor, as Munnings was initially adamant in his refusal to accept one final commission. He describes how it was eventually the qualities of the horse itself that won him over:
Lord Astor wrote asking me to do this last picture, and I said 'No'. At Epsom, his eldest son, Bill said, 'Do paint High Stakes for father. The horse can be sent to you.' I said, 'No'. Then the son who rides racing wrote to me, and my reply was 'No: I paint no horses for people'. One morning, working in the rubbing-stable, I was aware that I must have a racehorse to paint. My brain-cells, wherein the shape, make and anatomy of a horse were shelved, had grown dull. On the Heath next morning I saw Lawson, who used to train Lord Astor's horses at Manton. Talking to him, High Stakes came into mind - a horse that had finished racing. I asked Lawson if he had room for the horse and could have him sent to my stable studio. That day, on the phone, he found the horse was already at Newmarket... I toiled on some hard studies of High Stakes, as usual trying to do the impossible. He certainly was a horse - a personality... At the least sound the horse held his head and tail high in the air... The long lines, subtle shape, the alert, live work of a high-couraged, well-bred horse were beyond me, and as I worked I saw in the poise of his head, in his actions, the sire Hyperion that I had painted fifteen years ago. (A.J. Munnings, The Finish, Bungay, 1952, pp.304-5).
This work will be included in Lorain Peralta-Ramos's forthcoming munnings catalogue raisonne.
Provenance:
Commissioned by Lord Astor
Frost and Reed, London
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Allen, Greenwich
Richard Green, London
Private Collection, Connecticut
Exhibited:
Manchester, Athenaeum Gallery, and toured to York City Art Gallery and Bath, Victoria Art Gallery, Alfred Munnings 1878-1959, 1986, no.67;
London, Richard Green, Annual Exhibition of Sporting Paintings, 1990;
Saratoga Springs, The National Museum of Racing, The Mastery of Munnings, 2000, illustrated in the catalogue.
Literature:
A.J. Munnings, The Finish, Bungay, 1952, pp.304-5, several skectches for High Stakes illustrated opposite p.192.
1878-1959
lord astor's 'high stakes' with sir gordon richards up at newmarket
signed
oil on canvas
71 by 91.5 cm., 28 by 36 in.
!1650000-2450000
This painting was the last commission Munnings painted for Lord Astor who bred High Stakes (by Lord Derby's 1933 Derby winner Hyperion out of Lord Astor's 1929 Oaks winner Pennycomequick) - winner of 32 races and 21602 pounds. Foaled in 1942, High Stakes was gelded at the end of his two-year old season due, according to his trainer, Joe Lawson, to his aggressive sexuality, which was typical of Hyperion's offspring.
Sir Gordon Richards was the leading jockey of his generation and rode 4870 winners. In addition to being Champion Jockey 26 times, he won the Two Thousand Guineas three times, the One Thousand Guineas three times, the Derby once, the Oaks twice, and the St. Leger five times, as well as riding an amazing 269 winners in 1947.
Starting in 1920 with Buchan (coll. The Jockey Club, Newmarket), Munnings painted many racehorses for Lord Astor including Saucy Sue, Lee Bridge, Short Story, Traffic Light, Rhodes Scholar, and Early School, as well as a number of family portraits, like J.J.Astor, W.W. Astor with the Oxford University Drag Hounds, and Lord Astor at Cliveden. In Munnings's autobiography, the author muses about painting High Stakes's sire, the 1933 Derby winner Hyperion, for Lord Derby. Interestingly he also painted High Stakes' dam, the 1929 Oaks winner Pennycomequick, whose portrait Lord Astor had reproduced as a print to give to his friends. The present work represented something of a triumph for Lord Astor, as Munnings was initially adamant in his refusal to accept one final commission. He describes how it was eventually the qualities of the horse itself that won him over:
Lord Astor wrote asking me to do this last picture, and I said 'No'. At Epsom, his eldest son, Bill said, 'Do paint High Stakes for father. The horse can be sent to you.' I said, 'No'. Then the son who rides racing wrote to me, and my reply was 'No: I paint no horses for people'. One morning, working in the rubbing-stable, I was aware that I must have a racehorse to paint. My brain-cells, wherein the shape, make and anatomy of a horse were shelved, had grown dull. On the Heath next morning I saw Lawson, who used to train Lord Astor's horses at Manton. Talking to him, High Stakes came into mind - a horse that had finished racing. I asked Lawson if he had room for the horse and could have him sent to my stable studio. That day, on the phone, he found the horse was already at Newmarket... I toiled on some hard studies of High Stakes, as usual trying to do the impossible. He certainly was a horse - a personality... At the least sound the horse held his head and tail high in the air... The long lines, subtle shape, the alert, live work of a high-couraged, well-bred horse were beyond me, and as I worked I saw in the poise of his head, in his actions, the sire Hyperion that I had painted fifteen years ago. (A.J. Munnings, The Finish, Bungay, 1952, pp.304-5).
This work will be included in Lorain Peralta-Ramos's forthcoming munnings catalogue raisonne.
Provenance:
Commissioned by Lord Astor
Frost and Reed, London
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Allen, Greenwich
Richard Green, London
Private Collection, Connecticut
Exhibited:
Manchester, Athenaeum Gallery, and toured to York City Art Gallery and Bath, Victoria Art Gallery, Alfred Munnings 1878-1959, 1986, no.67;
London, Richard Green, Annual Exhibition of Sporting Paintings, 1990;
Saratoga Springs, The National Museum of Racing, The Mastery of Munnings, 2000, illustrated in the catalogue.
Literature:
A.J. Munnings, The Finish, Bungay, 1952, pp.304-5, several skectches for High Stakes illustrated opposite p.192.