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

Purchased directly from the artist by an ancestor of the present owner

The following condition report has been prepared by Hamish Dewar Ltd., 13 & 14 Mason's Yard, Duke Street, St James', London, SW1Y 6BU: UNCONDITIONAL AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE Structural Condition The canvas is unlined on the original keyed wooden stretcher and is structurally sound and secure. Paint Surface The paint surface has a patchy and uneven varnish layer with surface deposits and would respond very well to cleaning. No retouchings are visible under ultra-violet light. Summary The painting is therefore in excellent and stable condition and would benefit considerably from cleaning and revarnishing.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

'How powerfully the Grey Horse moves, thrown by a low horizon high against the shadows of the massed cumuli, whose lit summits echo the lights of the body. The warm reflections from the belly and the cold reflections from the sky on neck and shoulders give to the literal movement of the animal a sense of actual movement in space' 

PICTURES OF HORSES AND ENGLISH LIFE
Sir Alfred Munnings, 1939, p. 21

The composition is one of Munnings' most powerful and successful. It relates to The Grey Horse (private collection) begun in 1913 but not completed until 1923 and exhibited by Munnings at the Royal Academy in 1924. The present picture almost certainly dates to the earlier period of Munnings’ fascination with this subject. It was Munnings’ habit to simultaneously work on several versions of pictures, of various sizes – the size of the present picture being his favoured. It is likely that Ned Osborne on Grey Tick is one of the pictures begun in 1913, along with a smaller sketch of the same composition (Christie's, 20 June 1996, lot 55) and another variant version entitled The Grey Horse (Christie’s, 5 December 2001, lot 68 formerly in the collection of Sir James McGregor, a trustee of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales from 1928 to 1958). The versions are referred to in the artist's autobiography: 'There were many other sketches and studies made at Zennor, one with Ned on the grey mare against the sky, not in the scarlet coat but with bare arms and shirt sleeves, and riding bare-back at a fair. This was bought later for a Gallery in Australia; and after the war I finished a much larger version, begun at Zennor, called The Grey Horse. This was sold in the Academy for nine hundred guineas whilst I was in America in 1922. Good, patient Grey Tick! I have often thought of her since, and how she helped my account at the bank'. (op. cit., p. 278)

Ned Osborne on Grey Tick depicts the artist's groom, who also served as a model for Munnings’ equestrian subjects of horses being exercised. It was painted in Munnings’ first year at Lamorna in Cornwall where his studio and stables were combined in one space: 'My stables and studio at Lamorna were all in one; the studio, a large converted loft with a skylight, was above the stables. I found a new lad, a primitive Cornish youth. Ned was the name of this simple soul, who grew into a useful combination of groom-model, and posed for many a picture' (op. cit., pp. 272-73). Fortunately Ned was patient as he was frequently asked to pose for hours while his master painted him. In return the eighteen year old Ned ‘was receiving good wages, a suit of clothes a year, and was happy, well-fed and comfortable. I paid for his lodgings and beer, and with the pound at its value of that day, he was not badly off’ (op.cit. p.278) Munnings compared his obsessive paintings of Ned and his horses with Cézanne's still-lifes of apples: 'We have read how Cézanne went on painting a plate of apples for weeks and months, and how he had over a hundred sittings for Vollard's portrait; the two mares, the grey and the brown, were my plates of apples. I once went on for weeks painting the grey against a grey stone wall on grey days. Ned was patient, so were those two blessed mares'. One of the two mares was the good-natured and beautiful Grey Tick who had belonged to a huntsman named Tom Mollard but was rescued by Munnings from the indignity of working on a neighbouring farm.

Ned is riding Grey Tick at a fair at Zennor on the north coast of Cornwall. The artist’s low vantage, looking up at the mounted groom beneath a dramatic sky over the low horizon, gives the subject a wonderful monumentality further emphasised by the stark shadows and crisp light through clouds heavy with a threatening storm. The synergy of the horse and rider is made apparent by the commanding pose of Ned who is able to control the movement of this powerful animal, whose musculature ripples with kinetic potency. He is riding bare-back to emphasise that he is an experienced horse-man and glares out of the picture as though challenging the artist to a race that he is confident he will win. The painting has a classical intensity and Munnings went on to employ the motif of the man riding bare-back in several later works, including Gypsy Life (Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums) from c.1920.