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Lot Essay
Ruth Brady on Bugle Call is a masterpiece of understated elegance; the image is of a young girl in casual clothes riding her horse with her dog keeping pace beside her in an informal, relaxed rural setting. Its enduring and timeless appeal is testament to the skill of Munnings as a portraitist.
By the 1920s Munnings' reputation was already such that demand for his work was international. His sole visit to the United States and Canada was in 1924, and the six months he spent there were busy with countless social engagements and portrait commissions. He had also been enlisted as one of the judges of the 23rd Annual International Exhibition at Pittsburgh by Homer St Gaudens, the Director of the Carnegie Institute. Having crossed safely from Southampton to New York on the Berengaria, Munnings admitted 'Little did I dream...of the gloriously mad days ahead of me' (A.J. Munnings, The Second Burst, Bungay, 1951, p. 160). After brief stays in New York, Washington and then Pittsburgh, Munnings travelled to Massachusetts. On leaving Boston, he toured the New England coastline and then took up an invitation to go to Long Island so that the members of the American polo team could sit for their portraits. The time he spent on Long Island was memorable and he recalls the details vividly in his autobiography: 'These Long Islanders were most hospitable folk. Their way of life in their homes on well-wooded estates adjoining each other was, without doubt, beyond description. I should want a new volume to write about them.' (loc. cit.).
This portrait, along with several other works, was commissioned by the Brady family of Bedminster, New Jersey during Munnings' stay in America. The family also had an estate on Long Island and it has not been determined at which location the work was painted. Ruth Brady was born in November 1909, the second daughter of Mr and Mrs James Cox Brady. She was a keen horsewoman and hunted with the Essex Foxhounds. She met the Hon. Michael Simon Scott while on holiday in Old Fort, Nassau in the Bahamas and they later became engaged. It is an indication of the family's fondness for the portrait that the painting was used for the young couple's engagement notice (Fig 1). The wedding took place in Bernardsville, New Jersey on New Year's Eve, 1928. Michael Simon Scott was the son of Viscount Encombe, and a brother of the 4th Earl of Eldon. His mother was a daughter of the 15th Baron Lovat. The couple moved to England after the wedding and lived for a short while at Bibury Court, an impressive Tudor mansion in Gloucestershire. The house, built in 1633 for Sir Thomas Sackville had an illustrious history; Charles II is reputed to have visited the Court when he attended Bibury Races, as did the Prince Regent during the reign of George III. They then made their home at Stockton House, Wiltshire (Fig 2). Following Michael Simon Scott's death in 1938, Ruth returned to America.
The connection with the Brady family was a fond one for the artist. Ruth's sisters, Genevieve and Victoria feature in one of his favourite paintings Mrs. Helen Cutting and Misses Brady (private collection) (Fig 3). In this painting the protagonists are taking a moment's rest at the meet; the ladies and their horses arranged laterally across the picture plane. In his autobiography, The Finish, Munnings recalls the painting, 'This picture was one that I laid myself out to enjoy. It was a generous commission, and I liked Mrs. Cutting; she was a good-looker, and an individual, and I wish I could meet her again. I always got on with Americans ... The family had first-class horses in New Jersey, a long way off. I made my picture, and I think, next to the figure of the girl standing, my hardest work went into the sky' (A.J. Munnings, The Finish, Bungay, 1952, p. 26). Munnings was so pleased with the composition that he used the idea for another work featuring a lady friend, his wife, and four of his own horses in Why Weren't You Out Yesterday?, 1938. Ruth's brother was also painted by Munnings, probably during this stay in America. James Cox Brady on Galty Boy (private collection) is a very fine equestrian portrait which was included in the Wildenstein exhibition Alfred J. Munnings Images of the Turf and Field in New York in the spring of 1983, no. 48.
The equestrian portraits which he completed in the 1920s are some of the artist's finest works, epitomising a golden era of elegance and refinement; Beryl Riley Smith on Snowflake, 1925, (Christie's, London, 27 November 2002, lot 61), features the same compositional elements, and Sidney Fish on a dark bay, 1924, a portrait also completed on his American trip, (Christie's, London, 22 May 2003, lot 71) is a further example of the skill with which Munnings managed to capture the essence of the moment.
This work will be included in Lorian Peralta-Ramos' forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the works of Sir Alfred Munnings.
By the 1920s Munnings' reputation was already such that demand for his work was international. His sole visit to the United States and Canada was in 1924, and the six months he spent there were busy with countless social engagements and portrait commissions. He had also been enlisted as one of the judges of the 23rd Annual International Exhibition at Pittsburgh by Homer St Gaudens, the Director of the Carnegie Institute. Having crossed safely from Southampton to New York on the Berengaria, Munnings admitted 'Little did I dream...of the gloriously mad days ahead of me' (A.J. Munnings, The Second Burst, Bungay, 1951, p. 160). After brief stays in New York, Washington and then Pittsburgh, Munnings travelled to Massachusetts. On leaving Boston, he toured the New England coastline and then took up an invitation to go to Long Island so that the members of the American polo team could sit for their portraits. The time he spent on Long Island was memorable and he recalls the details vividly in his autobiography: 'These Long Islanders were most hospitable folk. Their way of life in their homes on well-wooded estates adjoining each other was, without doubt, beyond description. I should want a new volume to write about them.' (loc. cit.).
This portrait, along with several other works, was commissioned by the Brady family of Bedminster, New Jersey during Munnings' stay in America. The family also had an estate on Long Island and it has not been determined at which location the work was painted. Ruth Brady was born in November 1909, the second daughter of Mr and Mrs James Cox Brady. She was a keen horsewoman and hunted with the Essex Foxhounds. She met the Hon. Michael Simon Scott while on holiday in Old Fort, Nassau in the Bahamas and they later became engaged. It is an indication of the family's fondness for the portrait that the painting was used for the young couple's engagement notice (Fig 1). The wedding took place in Bernardsville, New Jersey on New Year's Eve, 1928. Michael Simon Scott was the son of Viscount Encombe, and a brother of the 4th Earl of Eldon. His mother was a daughter of the 15th Baron Lovat. The couple moved to England after the wedding and lived for a short while at Bibury Court, an impressive Tudor mansion in Gloucestershire. The house, built in 1633 for Sir Thomas Sackville had an illustrious history; Charles II is reputed to have visited the Court when he attended Bibury Races, as did the Prince Regent during the reign of George III. They then made their home at Stockton House, Wiltshire (Fig 2). Following Michael Simon Scott's death in 1938, Ruth returned to America.
The connection with the Brady family was a fond one for the artist. Ruth's sisters, Genevieve and Victoria feature in one of his favourite paintings Mrs. Helen Cutting and Misses Brady (private collection) (Fig 3). In this painting the protagonists are taking a moment's rest at the meet; the ladies and their horses arranged laterally across the picture plane. In his autobiography, The Finish, Munnings recalls the painting, 'This picture was one that I laid myself out to enjoy. It was a generous commission, and I liked Mrs. Cutting; she was a good-looker, and an individual, and I wish I could meet her again. I always got on with Americans ... The family had first-class horses in New Jersey, a long way off. I made my picture, and I think, next to the figure of the girl standing, my hardest work went into the sky' (A.J. Munnings, The Finish, Bungay, 1952, p. 26). Munnings was so pleased with the composition that he used the idea for another work featuring a lady friend, his wife, and four of his own horses in Why Weren't You Out Yesterday?, 1938. Ruth's brother was also painted by Munnings, probably during this stay in America. James Cox Brady on Galty Boy (private collection) is a very fine equestrian portrait which was included in the Wildenstein exhibition Alfred J. Munnings Images of the Turf and Field in New York in the spring of 1983, no. 48.
The equestrian portraits which he completed in the 1920s are some of the artist's finest works, epitomising a golden era of elegance and refinement; Beryl Riley Smith on Snowflake, 1925, (Christie's, London, 27 November 2002, lot 61), features the same compositional elements, and Sidney Fish on a dark bay, 1924, a portrait also completed on his American trip, (Christie's, London, 22 May 2003, lot 71) is a further example of the skill with which Munnings managed to capture the essence of the moment.
This work will be included in Lorian Peralta-Ramos' forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the works of Sir Alfred Munnings.