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

Richard Green, London: (as Boy with Pony by a Circus Tent)
E. Cooper Bland
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, June 3, 1994, lot 303, illustrated (as Boy with Pony by a Circus Tent)
Acquired at the above sale

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work is painted on a fairly heavily textured burlap, which is a departure for Munnings, but the condition is very good. The canvas is un-lined. The paint layer may be slightly dirty. In the roof of the tent on the extreme right side there are a few small retouches and a spot or two in the cheek and forehead of the seated boy on the left. Elsewhere, although there may be a tiny dot or two, in the tent on the far left for instance, there are no other restorations. The painting could be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

After Munnings had completed an apprenticeship at the Norwich lithographers Page Brothers but before turning toward commissions for equestrian painting prior to World War I, his work centered largely on depictions of agricultural life around his home near Mendham in Suffolk.  The artist was familiar with many of the farmers and their families whose lives centered around Mendham Mill, the largest mill in the Waveney Valley. As Munnings explained "a parcel of boys was always about the yards at home...[including a carter's son] Jimmy Betts, with a pale, round face, sad blue eyes, and a running nose, who looked as though he needed nourishment" (Sir Alfred Munnings, An Artist's Life, London, 1950, p. 110).  Jimmy appeared in several of Munnings' paintings in the early 1900s including A Gala Day in which he enjoys an orange among the bustle of a country fair, and The Last of the Fair  where he is shown asleep, exhausted from a day minding animals brought to market (both exhibited at the London Royal Academy in 1903 and now in the collection of the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston).  The model for the boy of the present work is likely Jimmy and it is unclear if he rests beside the tents of a travelling circus or those of a horse fair which was almost a weekly occurrence in East Anglia and a frequent choice of subject by Munnings in this period. No matter the specific occasion, the excitement and color of both events appealed to the artist and afford many opportunities for artistic experimentation. In the present work Munnings employs a palette of complimentary shades of yellows, greens, and reds applied with short daubs and expressive strokes of paint to suggest both the warmth of the day and bright mood of the events.