Sir Alfred Munnings, P.R.A., R.W.S. 1878-1959

Munnings was a regular at the East Anglian Saturday horse fairs not just as an observer but also as a buyer. Changing his equestrian models every couple of months, he became a familiar figure amongst the dealers and the various colourful characters who frequented these gatherings.

It did not take him long to capitalise on the extensive ready source of model material. In the first volume of his autobiography Munnings recalls at length the various characters that he would employ from ‘the loafing fraternity not engaged in regular work’ (An Artist's Life, Museum Press Ltd., London, p.110). Though the identities of the models in the present work have not been confirmed, it is possible that one of the Aldous brothers, Pod or Ned: ‘types bred in every village since the Stone Age… always ready, if about, to do anything in the standing or sitting line for a pint, or, better still, a quart… ' may have had some input. Just as likely Porky Emmerson, ‘another of the same cut… a mystery, who came and went and did harvests and helped to kill and dress pigs – hence his name... Then there was Dan Betts... who wore small silver earrings, and shaved off his moustache for me to put him in a picture, and became so transfigured that his wife and children didn't know him.' (op.cit., pp.111-2)

Munnings delighted in the banter of the fair and the easy availability of his models: ‘And there they were for the asking. They loved posing, and still better they loved seeing a sovereign or a pint of beer’ (op.cit., p.113)