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

Commissioned directly from the artist by William Frew and Margaretta Park Frew in 1924
Margaretta Frew Conderman (by descent in 1950 from the above, her parents, and until circa 1960)
Arthur Ackermann & Son, London (in 1973)
Richard Green, London
Lowndes Lodge Gallery, London (by 1977)
Emily Frew Oliver (acquired in 1988)
Thence by descent to the present owner

Probably, Sir Alfred Munnings, The Second Burst, London, 1951, p. 160
Brian Stewart and Meryn Cutten, The Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain up to 1920, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1997, illustrated p. 340
"Munning's Lady," Country Life, December 3, 1987, p. 260, illustrated

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is in beautiful condition. The canvas has never been lined or removed from its original stretcher. The paint layer is clean and varnished, and there are no retouches or weaknesses to the paint layer. The picture should 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."

In 1924 Munnings left England for his only trip to United States, a whirlwind six month itinerary he remembered as "gloriously mad days" (Munnings, p. 160).  The artist painted equestrian subjects commissioned by elite East Coast families near Boston, on the north shore of Long Island, in New Jersey, and near Buffalo, New York.  Munnings traveled to Pittsburgh on the request of Homer St. Gaudens, the Director of the Carnegie Institute, who enlisted the artist as one of the judges of the Twenty-third Annual International Exhibition (held from April 24-June 15, 1924).  Upon his arrival in March, Munnings recalled "deep snow and cold weather" and "merry cocktail parties" during which he was introduced by St. Gaudens to "a pretty lady who wants to be painted on her horse" (Munnings, p. 160).  Though this woman would be Munnings' "first sitter in America" and "too charming to forget," her name escaped him.  A photograph taken during the portrait's painting strongly suggests that the sitter was Mrs. Margaretta Park Frew, wife of William Frew, a member of the Carnegie Institute Board of Trustees, stockbroker, and outdoor enthusiast (fig 1.) (William Frew was the son of William Nimick Frew who served as the President of the Carnegie Institute from 1896-1914 at the request of Andrew Carnegie.)  As the photograph shows, Munnings painted Mrs. Park Frew on a high sawhorse (constructed by St. Gaudens' carpenter) in the Carnegie Institute galleries to avoid the impossibly frigid conditions of Pittsburgh's winter, and described this ingenious solution in his memoirs.

As in the photograph, the painted portrait of Mrs. Park Frew depicts her in the standard but casual ladies' riding attire of the day. Her jacket's long full skirt over billowy jodhpurs, soft hat and brown boots were de rigueur as an alternative to the formal riding habit.  The horse is not only anatomically correct but is also rendered with convincing vitality and solid substance, built with layers of complicated paint colors —  from expected chestnut browns and ruddy red to daring tones of green and blue that suggest the sheen over the animal's musculature.  Munnings masterfully suggests the movement of the horse: its front leg steps out while the hind leg is lifted as it strides. The uncluttered landscape increases the viewer's awareness of Munnings' sensitivity to equine form and movement. Indeed, the horse was as well observed as its sitter, as Munnings would travel to a local country club's stables to select the best bay as a model (though perhaps not one owned or ridden by the Frews).  As the nearly completed composition in the photograph suggests, Munnings repeatedly and carefully observed both horse and rider in order to create a testament to both a lively, elegant woman of the early twentieth century and his own highly personal artistic vision.