Silks and Satins of the Turf, under Starter's Orders

Racing fascinated Munnings from an early stage in his career. After two days at the race meeting on Bungay Common, Suffolk, in 1899, he felt that his life had changed: ‘I saw the thoroughbred horses and jockeys in bright silk colours, going off down the course…The peaceful School of Art, the smelly artists’ room faded away, and I began to live!’ (A.J. Munnings, An Artist’s Life, London, 1950, p. 65).

However, it wasn’t until 1915 that Munnings exhibited his first Start at the Royal Academy, which showed a line up at the St Buryan point-to-point races in Cornwall. Munnings evolved the subject matter throughout his life, and it came to dominate his work after the Second World War. His strong compositional and sculptural qualities were consistent, usually depicting a horse and jockey seen in profile in the foreground, and a line of other riders receding into the distance. For Munnings the start of the race epitomised the power and beauty of the horse, encapsulating the moment of stillness before the race begins when the horses, jockeys and spectators erupt into a mass of energy and excitement.

In Silks and Satins of the Turf, under Starter’s orders Munnings has captured the moment of anticipation as the horses prepare to line up ahead of the start. Whilst the main grouping, in their gorgeously coloured silks and satins, appear to form one mass, steadily gathering pace, the two outlying horses add a heightened sense of tension. Whilst the jockey on the right chooses to keep his flighty horse away from the pack, the jockey in blue at the rear fights to retain control of his excited ride, and prevent a false start. As a young student Munnings travelled to Paris to train at the Académie Julian, the starting point for many of the most important artists of his generation. Whilst in France he saw the work of Edgar Degas, also known for his energetic and striking racing scenes (fig. 1), whose influence may be seen not only in the choice of subject matter but also in the vivid treatment of the lively horses.

Munnings returned to the idea of the Start again and again, desperate to capture the elusive moment perfectly (fig 2). He was fascinated by the beauty of the spectacle, and how the weather and the light affected the colouring of the scene. ‘Orange satin, cerise-and-white, blue-and-yellow, emerald green – a large field waiting, waiting, regrouping. At each start, determining to retain the picture in my mind, too often an incident, something a horse is doing distracts, and once again my purpose is thwarted. This is the best picture I have ever seen – why can’t I paint it?’ (Munnings quoted in S. Booth, Sir Alfred Munnings 1878-1959, London, 1978, p. 212.)

The painting was probably executed at Newmarket, considered by Munnings to be ‘the most beautiful course in the world’, and the scene of some of his most dramatic sporting paintings. Munnings regularly drove over from his house in Dedham to watch the horses exercising on Newmarket Heath and to attend the races (fig. 3). He was given special permission by the clerk to position his car at the starting post and he kept his own horse box as a studio. Newmarket, one of the oldest racecourses in England, was established in 1605 by King James I and in painting there, Munnings was continuing a tradition established by Wootton, Seymour and Stubbs in the first half of the 18th century.

We are grateful to the Curatorial staff at The Munnings Art Museum for their assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
This work will be included in Tradition and Modernity: the Works of Sir Alfred Munnings by Lorian Peralta-Ramos to be published 2022.