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

G. Blair Laing, Toronto, 1958;
Private collection

Royal Academy, 1921, no.554
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool Autumn Exhibition, 1921, no.937 

Sir Alfred Munnings, The Second Burst, Museum Press 1951, illustrated after p.152
The Children's Newspaper, May 21st 1921, p.3

STRUCTURE The canvas has been relined. The paint surface is in good overall condition; clean and ready to hang. ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT UV light reveals a few areas of retouching and scattered spots of infilling to craquelure in the sky and to frame abrasions along the right edge. FRAME Held in plaster gilt frame in fair condition. For more information regarding this picture please contact the Victorian & Edwardian Pictures Department on +44 (0)207 293 5718
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Gypsies proved a rich source of inspiration for Munnings throughout his career; 'A picturesque, swarthy crowd, still retaining their carved-and-gilded caravans.  The costumes of the women surpassed all dreams...large, black, ostrich-plumed hats, black ringlets, big ear-rings' (Sir Alfred Munnings, The Second Burst, 1951, p.80). His first encounter with these colourful folk took place during his childhood when he stumbled on an encampment near Mendham.  They were regular subjects in his paintings of East Anglian fairgrounds and horse markets executed in the first decade of the twentieth century, and he painted numerous pictures of Romany Gypsies who worked on Hampshire hop farms in the years leading up to WWI.

The present work relates to a fifty by forty inch canvas entitled Arrival at Epsom Downs for Derby Week (Birmingham City Art Gallery) painted in 1920 which depicts a blue horse-drawn wagon, transporting a large family of gypsies with children and a goat running alongside as they arrive at the racecourse.  It was completed, presumably alongside the present work, at Alton in Hampshire, where Munnings stayed to paint the aforementioned hop-picking series. Violet, whom Munnings had married in March that year, was particularly pleased with it when arrived at Castle House, Dedham; "Well done, you clever little man!  Splendid!  You shall have a nice dinner and a nice bottle with it for this' (ibid. p. 282) While the placing of the figures is virtually identical, the present work differs in as far as the wagon is green and there are fewer figures while the horse is being driven rather than led.  The gypsies are all models who Munnings had met and painted on the hop farms in Hampshire; the distinguished and authoritative figure of Mrs Mark Stevens, wearing a pale pink dress, green scarf and large ostrich-plumed hat, holds the reins while Mrs Moocher Gregory sits to her left.  These were two of Munnings' favourite models who appeared in another major work from this period, Gypsy Life, 1920 (Aberdeen Art Gallery).  Nellie Loveday, a beautiful young Romany, whose mother also modelled for Munnings, sits in the back of the cart, a bright yellow scarf tied round her neck.

Following the horrors of WWI, Munnings recounts a huge sense of optimism prior to the 1919 meeting at Epsom; 'All was fresh and new.  Since then I have long had the privilege of being a member of Epsom.  Never have I quite felt the alluring , infectious joy of the races, the tradition of Epsom, as I did in that first year after the war, 1919.  The hill, the crowd on either side of the course; the gypsies, the caravans were Edwardian – Victorian – eighteenth century.  For me Epsom expresses the true meaning of the words "The Races"'(ibid. 1951, p.80).  Munnings' had a strong affinity with the gypsy way of life; in 1910 he emulated their way of life to the extent that he spent the summer driving around the Ringland Hills, East of Norwich, in a blue gypsy caravan which served as a mobile studio.  Their simple, rural, nomadic existence without boundaries appealed to his own sensibilities; to witness and paint nature with spontaneity and without constraint.  He celebrates the riotous colours of the gypsy clothing yet cleverly balances this by heightening the pallet of the surrounding countryside, resulting in a work that is a vibrant yet harmonious celebration of English country life.