Munnings, Sir Alfred.

i) Series of approximately 65 autograph letters signed by Munnings ("A.J.M.", "A.J. Munnings", "Alfred"), to Maurice Codner, revealing his deep love of nature, with frequent descriptions of landscapes

...a chill wind & curtains not drawn & a big full moon just looking at us through the drawing room windows...then a cloud passing over her face -- I said her face -- the Queen Moon as Keats calls her -- feminine you know. I was in the studio after supper all alone -- absolutely. & just putting more paint on canvases to be prepared against some future inspiration which may never come...

...Great fat cart horses roll about & the various rushy streams meander through to Langham…I’m only making studies & each day makes me sad because in that one small area there is endless stuff to do…

also commenting on landscape-painting ("...there I sat by the river with everything going grey -- sky disappearing...so I sat & did an imaginary piece of sky -- Hell -- no wonder landscapists are few & that Constable was a great fellow -- He had it bred in him...") and its challenges ("...If only we could put down the seen impression swiftly & truly to give a thrill to the onlooker!!..."), expressing apathy and disillusion ("...I wonder how I have worried day & night about a portion of sky or even a horses fundament...when I look at photographs of some of my earlier work I'm not disgusted -- I'm shamed to my innermost core...") tempered by bursts of enthusiasm ("…You and I should go & stay at Bradley farm up in the woods & hills near here for a month & live on cream & stuff & work. £3 a week & trees galore & stone buildings & the rest & when it rained we’d do masterpieces indoors..."), offering advice to Codner ("...all you have to do with that awful picture [a portrait of Seymour Hicks] is to put in a light background behind the figure...") and encouragement ("...I've always seen you gradually gaining & burrowing in. You're as undefeatable as the Hun..."), and referring to his own work

other subjects including: the prospect of standing for presidency of the Royal Academy in 1944 (“…Between you & me, I would like to try it for a few years…Do you think many of them have gone to exhibitions as I have done? Or keep an eye on these younger painters?..."), art world gossip, his horses, drinking, arrangements for visits and outings, his walks and people he meets (“…you never in your life saw such a beautiful girl as the daughter … superb…Heather coming into bloom…”), the Garrick club ("...This dam'd Catalogue of Garrick club pictures is an everlasting judgement on me for drinking too much..."), rivers ("...The Rhine is magnificent in parts & to see the towns lit up at night, all colours reflected on the wide surface troubled & wrinkled by the strong current is a dream..."), air raids, letters to various newspapers ("...Did you see New Statesman for today. Get it. Keep it. Study it. A long letter finishing off Clive Bell. From me. He had a hell of a go at me over those Times letters...”), and the marble figures in Versailles ("...the sight of all those marble figures in their fixed attitudes would have broken your heart. So beautiful & placid in the groves or in rows – on fountain basin in bronze – some seemed listening – others just about to come to life – others breathed – what a place..."), two letters with a sketch of a fish (depicting the "Cod" in "dear Codner"), and another signed off "Well - painting is awful"; over 150 pages, chiefly 4to and 8vo, the majority in pencil, seven autograph envelopes (one with pencil sketch of a man wearing a hat), a few written on versos of notices from the Royal Academy, Castle House, Dedham, King's Withypool, Minehead and elsewhere, mostly undated [1938-46], occasional spotting and rust-marks from paperclips, some pages frayed at edges (no loss), a few with light dust- or ink-stains or slight creasing, some smudging of pencil, burn-hole to one leaf affecting a few letters

together with an autograph draft by Munnings of a letter to a newspaper to be sent under Codner's name in defence of Munnings (3 pages, 4to); 6 pages of autograph miscellaneous notes; one autograph letter by Codner to Munnings; and 20 autograph letters by Violet Munnings, chiefly to Codner

ii) portrait of alfred munnings by maurice codner, signed at top left corner, oil on canvas, half-length, unframed, 61 x 51cm (24 x 20 in), painted in 1945 (a larger oil portrait of Munnings by Codner -- illustrated right -- will be included in our Bond Street sale of 20th Century British Art on 2 March 2005)

iii) A sketchbook containing over twenty small pencil sketches by Munnings, many of which can be identified as studies for specific finished paintings, including "Gypsy Life", "Hop-Pickers" and "Gypsy Horse-Copers"; also containing several pencil sketches by Codner, oblong 8vo (11 x 17 cm), [1920s], some light staining to a few pages, hinges weak

iv) numerous pencil sketches by munnings, most of them signed with initials, including: a drawing of a girl's head, signed "A.J. Munnings" at top right corner, on verso of headed stationery of the Café Royal, mounted, size of aperture 200 x 120mm, [1920s]; three portraits of Codner, signed with initials and marked by Munnings "Try No. 1...not bad", "Try No. 2...nearly" and "Try No. 3", framed and glazed, overall size 320 x 540mm; 3 pen and ink drawings of a man (presumably Munnings himself) dancing beside horses while holding a wineglass, each 330 x 205mm; 3 small sketches of doctors about to administer an injection (referring to an illness described in one of the above letters); two small sketches of a man on horseback; a sketch of Codner, 200 x 125mm; 2 studies of men on horseback and a church, both signed and dated in Kersey, Suffolk, 1931, each 180 x 230mm; six studies of gypsy-carts and horses, five of them marked with guidelines for colour, each approx. 115 x 180mm; one page of studies of riders on horseback, 240 x 205mm; and an Arts Club dinner menu decorated by pencil sketches of girls' faces, 1939, occasional light staining or spotting, some pages frayed at edges, smudging of pencil to a few sketches

v) Related miscellaneous material, including: three photographs of Munnings' paintings, inscribed on the mounts by the artist to Codner; 8 photographs of Munnings; a phonograph recording of Munnings reciting his own poem "The Tale of Anthony Bell"; two exhibition catalogues; printed copies of three poems by Munnings, with autograph revisions, two of them inscribed by Munnings to Codner; advertising material; Christmas cards; and a quantity of press-cuttings