Sir Alfred J. Munnings, P.R.A. 1878-1959

Painted in 1902, Summer Afternoon is a glorious depiction of harvest time deep in the English Countryside.  The careful treatment of light suggests the sun has temporarily been shielded by a cloud leaving a shaded azure tint to the river and lilies in the foreground.  The eye is drawn to the contrasting activities; the women take a well earned rest, exhausted after haymaking in the heat of the day whereas two men and a terrier attempt to extract their punt from the riverbank after a day on the river.

Munnings attended classes at the Atelier Julian in Paris in 1902 where he admired the work of Degas, Fantin-Latour and Tissot.  The impressionist influence is clearly evident in the present work.  It is also interesting to consider the shape of the painting; it is rare for Munnings to paint a landscape on a portrait shaped stretcher.  This may have been down to necessity; as an artist who painted en plein air he would have been able to carry only a limited number of canvases.  However when one considers how this format focuses the viewers attention on the setting, encapsulating the complexities of nature, it seems unlikely that this was unintentional.  The play of light imbues the land, river and sky with a wonderful sense of movement reminiscent of Henry Herbert la Thangue's landscapes which undoubtedly were a further influence on Munnings. 

River scenes form a considerable part of his oeuvre.  The work of Norwich School artists such as John Crome and John Sell Cotman, combined with the rivers and marshes of his native Suffolk provided early inspiration.  Stranded, painted in 1897, depicts two children, Munnings’ cousins Nina and Cecil in a rowing boat stuck in the reeds.  This work along with Pike fishing in January were, in 1899, the first of Munnings’ paintings to be exhibited at the Royal Academy.  This subject matured and developed resulting in the highly acclaimed series of Canoeing pictures such as Idle Moments (1906) and a September Afternoon (1939).  Summer Afternoon is a charming and early example of such works.  As Munnings himself described The Full River, painted in 1931, ‘…this full river was our playground, and a reminder of my youth’.