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Lot Essay
The composition of The Grey Horse is one of Munnings's most romantic and evocative. It shows Ned Osborne, the artist's model and groom, riding the grey horse at a fair at Zennor on the north coast of Cornwall. The grey was an enduring favourite of the artist and is discussed by Lionel Lindsay: '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' (L. Lindsay, A.J. Munnings, R.A. Pictures of Horses and English life, London, 1939, p. 21). It is interesting to note that 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 circa 1920.
Munnings moved from Swainsthorpe near Norwich to Lamorna in Cornwall in 1913. The artist described his arrangements in the first book of his autobiography: '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). Munnings also recalled (op. cit., p. 275) how, for these works, he was indebted to the patience of his models: his groom Ned Osborne, and the white mare Grey Tick who belonged to a neighbouring farmer. He compared his obsessive paintings of them with Cézanne's plates 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'.
The present composition was formerly in the collection of Sir James McGregor, a trustee of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales from 1928 to 1958. It is referred to in the artist's autobiography (op. cit., p. 278): '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 [private collection]. 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'. The present painting although not dated is also referred to in the 1956 Royal Academy exhibition catalogue: 'a smaller version completed in Cornwall is in Australia'.
Munnings moved from Swainsthorpe near Norwich to Lamorna in Cornwall in 1913. The artist described his arrangements in the first book of his autobiography: '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). Munnings also recalled (op. cit., p. 275) how, for these works, he was indebted to the patience of his models: his groom Ned Osborne, and the white mare Grey Tick who belonged to a neighbouring farmer. He compared his obsessive paintings of them with Cézanne's plates 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'.
The present composition was formerly in the collection of Sir James McGregor, a trustee of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales from 1928 to 1958. It is referred to in the artist's autobiography (op. cit., p. 278): '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 [private collection]. 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'. The present painting although not dated is also referred to in the 1956 Royal Academy exhibition catalogue: 'a smaller version completed in Cornwall is in Australia'.