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Lot Essay
This was a favorite subject of the artist and he gave various titles to these serene and luminescent scenes including September Afternoon, The White Canoe, The River and The Pink Parasol. Munnings, like the Impressionist painters, was a champion of painting in the open air to achieve natural sunlight and shadow. In this exquisite study, he explores the dramatic effects of light and plays with the warm summer sunlight filtering down through the overhanging willows and the echo of its reflection and color.
Munnings' exhibited his earliest version, entitled The White Canoe, at the Royal Academy in 1924 and describes it in his memoirs, 'And now for the sixth picture of 1924, from grey horses to a river willows; "The White Canoe" it was called. Its title brings memories of Flatford of the past, when an old man called Bennyworth carried on a small grist business in one end of the mill buildings and let out two or three boats.
Barges were then towed up to Dedham Mill on a full river, which, in its lush landscape setting, could compare with anything of the kind in the world. The passing of its mills, the taking of much of its water, have stolen the essence of the river's beauty. The picture of the white canoe was painted on a still, grey afternoon, quite twenty-eight years ago.
The scene comes back. Willows, dark reflections in the deep pool at the bned of the stream above the wooden bridge; my wife and a friend, both twenty-either years younger then, in summer dresses of the day, seated in a Canadian canoe, which was fastened with cords fore and aft to overhanging boughs. A long willow-pole, the thickest end against the bank, and the thinnest with a crotch fixed to the canoe, kept it in its place out in the river.....The next day I did another and larger canvas under the same conditions of weather. What artist could resist such a stillness in the air, such unchangeable grey skies, such peace? The first canoe-picture wnet to the Academy of 1924, the second attempt to the International Exhibition at Pittsburgh the same year..' (A.J. Munnings, The Second Burst, Bungay, 1951, pp. 157-8).
He returned several times to this composition and exhibited different versions at the Royal Academy in 1940, 1944, 1946, 1948, 1953 and 1956. As Munnings developed and revisited this tranquil scene, his paintings became more colorful and luminescent. The later versions, like this painting, include the colorful parasol which Munnings juxtaposes with its own reflection in the still water as the central element of the composition.
The present work is a study for September Afternoon (1939; Sir Alfred Munnings Art Museum, Castle House, Dedham) which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1948. He refers to this latter series in the final volume of his memoirs, '...Willows, the river, two girls drifting in a canoe-an old theme of past years taken up again. Sunlight streaming through a transparent pink Japanese sunshade-exquisite-a challenge to the eyes. So fine was the September weather that I did many pictures on that spot.' (A.J. Munnings, The Finish, Bungay, 1952, p. 60).
The actual Canadian canoe depicted in this painting remains at the Sir Alfred Munnings Art Museum.
This work will be included in Lorian Peralta-Ramos's forthcoming catalogue raisonée of the works of Sir Alfred Munnings.
Munnings' exhibited his earliest version, entitled The White Canoe, at the Royal Academy in 1924 and describes it in his memoirs, 'And now for the sixth picture of 1924, from grey horses to a river willows; "The White Canoe" it was called. Its title brings memories of Flatford of the past, when an old man called Bennyworth carried on a small grist business in one end of the mill buildings and let out two or three boats.
Barges were then towed up to Dedham Mill on a full river, which, in its lush landscape setting, could compare with anything of the kind in the world. The passing of its mills, the taking of much of its water, have stolen the essence of the river's beauty. The picture of the white canoe was painted on a still, grey afternoon, quite twenty-eight years ago.
The scene comes back. Willows, dark reflections in the deep pool at the bned of the stream above the wooden bridge; my wife and a friend, both twenty-either years younger then, in summer dresses of the day, seated in a Canadian canoe, which was fastened with cords fore and aft to overhanging boughs. A long willow-pole, the thickest end against the bank, and the thinnest with a crotch fixed to the canoe, kept it in its place out in the river.....The next day I did another and larger canvas under the same conditions of weather. What artist could resist such a stillness in the air, such unchangeable grey skies, such peace? The first canoe-picture wnet to the Academy of 1924, the second attempt to the International Exhibition at Pittsburgh the same year..' (A.J. Munnings, The Second Burst, Bungay, 1951, pp. 157-8).
He returned several times to this composition and exhibited different versions at the Royal Academy in 1940, 1944, 1946, 1948, 1953 and 1956. As Munnings developed and revisited this tranquil scene, his paintings became more colorful and luminescent. The later versions, like this painting, include the colorful parasol which Munnings juxtaposes with its own reflection in the still water as the central element of the composition.
The present work is a study for September Afternoon (1939; Sir Alfred Munnings Art Museum, Castle House, Dedham) which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1948. He refers to this latter series in the final volume of his memoirs, '...Willows, the river, two girls drifting in a canoe-an old theme of past years taken up again. Sunlight streaming through a transparent pink Japanese sunshade-exquisite-a challenge to the eyes. So fine was the September weather that I did many pictures on that spot.' (A.J. Munnings, The Finish, Bungay, 1952, p. 60).
The actual Canadian canoe depicted in this painting remains at the Sir Alfred Munnings Art Museum.
This work will be included in Lorian Peralta-Ramos's forthcoming catalogue raisonée of the works of Sir Alfred Munnings.