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Lot Essay
The exact date when Munnings initially went to Cornwall is uncertain. Munnings' memoirs states that he first visited in either the summer of 1910 or 1911 as he was curious to see the country which had attracted the famous community of painters of the Newlyn School. He was certainly settled on the south coast at Lamorna by 1912, remaining until he joined the war efforts in 1914.
Munnings describes the inspiration that he drew from the landscape around Zennor:
'Zennor, on the north coast of Cornwall, not far from St Ives, was at the time a primitive and unspoilt village. Being in granite country, where the soil was shallow, huge masses of stone were built into walls; every wall on each side of every lane consisted of huge stone slabs of split granite. Each farm was divided into small fields and the stones which had been cleared from the ground was piled into walls, some being half as wide as a room. Great stones of strange shapes stood near the houses on either side of the brow of the hill where the road leads to St Ives. In fact this was the most picturesque and charming place. Having seen the village more than once whilst the hounds were drawing a fox on Zennor Hill, and having visited it many times with friends, I was itching to get to the place and use Ned [Ned Osborn was a local man whom Munnings used as a model and groom while in Cornwall] and the horses in fresh scenes.' (A.J. Munnings, An Artist's Life, Bungay, 1950, p. 275).
In the same passage he later details how the present composition came to be designed,
'Repeating the same work methods I always used on principle in my earlier Norfolk adventures, I at once started work. The morning after our arrival, the humble Ned appeared in white corn breeches and top boots, and at about 9:30 a.m. riding Grey Tick, with a mackintosh to hide his scarlet coat, he came towards me up the hill, where I was already planted with easel, canvas and box. This was the start. What could be better? Ned shed his mackintosh. I told him to ride a little way down the hill and then come up slowly again. "Stop, stop, Ned! That's all right; keep where you are" Then with a twenty-by-twenty-four canvas as a feeler, I began to put down my composition.....
Here is the scene of the painting. A grey sky; a boulder strewn hill, with flat spaces of grey granite showing amongst the heather-clad sides sloping down to the moor below. Beyond that, undulating moors, fields and stone walls. Farther away, Guava Cairn, grey against the yet paler grey of the faint distant horizon beyond Morvah, and through all this the Land's End road curving away out of sight. Coming up the hill with hounds was Ned on the grey, the scarlet coat on low tones, the black velvet cap the darkest note of colour - a splendid subject.' (ibid, p. 276).
He later tried several different compositions at Zennor but returned to the present work which was the first impression he chose to repeat on a larger scale for exhibition. He chose to exhibit the finished larger work entitled Hunstman and Hounds Going up Zennor Hill at the Royal Academy in 1919 (no. 576). This was the year in which he was elected to that same institution. He received what he thought was a 'huge sum' of 250 guineas for this larger work from the dealer Connell of Bond Street.
Munnings has captured the stark primitive setting on Zennor by reconstructing the barren winter landscape as well as the cold damp atmosphere of the region. In contrast to the hibernating foliage, void of life and movement, he articulates the motion of the hounds and horse thrusting forward to reach the crest of the hill with fluid brushwork as if the flow of paint helps carry the figures upward. The sense of movement of the composition is further developed by the line of the hounds and huntsmen which curves from the foreground to the lower valley and is then extended by road in the distance that meanders off towards Lands End passing Carn Galva in the distance. The viewer's eye is drawn through the scene by the scarlet huntsmens' coats which are dramatically contrasted with the natural grey colour of the landscape.
This work will be included in Lorian Peralta-Ramos's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the works of Sir Alfred Munnings.
Munnings describes the inspiration that he drew from the landscape around Zennor:
'Zennor, on the north coast of Cornwall, not far from St Ives, was at the time a primitive and unspoilt village. Being in granite country, where the soil was shallow, huge masses of stone were built into walls; every wall on each side of every lane consisted of huge stone slabs of split granite. Each farm was divided into small fields and the stones which had been cleared from the ground was piled into walls, some being half as wide as a room. Great stones of strange shapes stood near the houses on either side of the brow of the hill where the road leads to St Ives. In fact this was the most picturesque and charming place. Having seen the village more than once whilst the hounds were drawing a fox on Zennor Hill, and having visited it many times with friends, I was itching to get to the place and use Ned [Ned Osborn was a local man whom Munnings used as a model and groom while in Cornwall] and the horses in fresh scenes.' (A.J. Munnings, An Artist's Life, Bungay, 1950, p. 275).
In the same passage he later details how the present composition came to be designed,
'Repeating the same work methods I always used on principle in my earlier Norfolk adventures, I at once started work. The morning after our arrival, the humble Ned appeared in white corn breeches and top boots, and at about 9:30 a.m. riding Grey Tick, with a mackintosh to hide his scarlet coat, he came towards me up the hill, where I was already planted with easel, canvas and box. This was the start. What could be better? Ned shed his mackintosh. I told him to ride a little way down the hill and then come up slowly again. "Stop, stop, Ned! That's all right; keep where you are" Then with a twenty-by-twenty-four canvas as a feeler, I began to put down my composition.....
Here is the scene of the painting. A grey sky; a boulder strewn hill, with flat spaces of grey granite showing amongst the heather-clad sides sloping down to the moor below. Beyond that, undulating moors, fields and stone walls. Farther away, Guava Cairn, grey against the yet paler grey of the faint distant horizon beyond Morvah, and through all this the Land's End road curving away out of sight. Coming up the hill with hounds was Ned on the grey, the scarlet coat on low tones, the black velvet cap the darkest note of colour - a splendid subject.' (ibid, p. 276).
He later tried several different compositions at Zennor but returned to the present work which was the first impression he chose to repeat on a larger scale for exhibition. He chose to exhibit the finished larger work entitled Hunstman and Hounds Going up Zennor Hill at the Royal Academy in 1919 (no. 576). This was the year in which he was elected to that same institution. He received what he thought was a 'huge sum' of 250 guineas for this larger work from the dealer Connell of Bond Street.
Munnings has captured the stark primitive setting on Zennor by reconstructing the barren winter landscape as well as the cold damp atmosphere of the region. In contrast to the hibernating foliage, void of life and movement, he articulates the motion of the hounds and horse thrusting forward to reach the crest of the hill with fluid brushwork as if the flow of paint helps carry the figures upward. The sense of movement of the composition is further developed by the line of the hounds and huntsmen which curves from the foreground to the lower valley and is then extended by road in the distance that meanders off towards Lands End passing Carn Galva in the distance. The viewer's eye is drawn through the scene by the scarlet huntsmens' coats which are dramatically contrasted with the natural grey colour of the landscape.
This work will be included in Lorian Peralta-Ramos's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the works of Sir Alfred Munnings.