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

‘Until I pass out I shall always long for the river and the warblers’ song going on and on, and now and then the wind through the willows turning the surface blue and purple.’

Sir Alfred James Munnings, 1952

The present work is a fluid and expressive depiction of a river scene, a subject Munnings returned to on a number of occasions throughout his career. Short, swift dabs of impasto capture the shimmering reflection in the water of the willow trees lining the bank of the river. A pink glow in the distant skyline indicates the magical hour of twilight. A flock of white farm-ducks are indicated by thick touches of white paint scattered across the surface of the river, dipping in and out of the water.

Munnings was born beside the River Waveney and his childhood home was the local water mill at Mendham, Norfolk. He then settled close to the River Stour, the location of the present work, in the village of Dedham. His depictions of the river began as early as 1897 when he painted his cousins Nina and Cecil, in a rowing boat stuck in the reeds, titled Stranded. 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).

The Munnings Art Museum held an exhibition titled Munnings and the River in 2017. It included fifty river scenes in watercolour and oils by the artist, as well as letters to his wife Violet, revealing in his musings that when away from home he would seek out riverbanks to walk along.