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

The Leicester Galleries, London
S. G. Lubbock Collection, UK (acquired from the above November 1947)
The Leicester Galleries, London
Private collection, UK (acquired from the above January 1959); thence by descent (sale: Bonhams, London, 27 September 2017, lot 121)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

London, Leicester Galleries, The English Scene: Horses, Racing, Landscapes and Studies by Sir Alfred Munnings, October-November 1947, no. 46
London, Leicester Galleries, New Year Exhibition, January 1959, no. 64

The pony depicted - Moonraker - belonged to an Exmoor farmer named Froude Bawden. Munnings also painted Moonraker standing at a gate in the Bawden's yard in a Royal Academy exhibit titled February Thaw.

The present work was first exhibited at the Leicester Galleries in 1947. Munnings wrote in his memoirs 'The Exhibition was held in both rooms at the Leicester Galleries. Little did the Galley proprietors or the artist himself dream what the result of it could be. In spite of the show being boycotted by some critics, there was a big daily attendance. Most of the works were sold, the sales reaching just on £21,000.' (Sir Alfred Munnings, The Finish, Bungay, 1952, p. 177)