Dunkery Beacon, Exmoor

Munnings, a countryman at heart, had a singular love of the dramatic and distinctive landscapes around Exmoor in Devon, and Withypool in particular, where he and his wife had a house. The works that Munnings produced there have an especially intimate and personal feel since typically they were unsolicited and painted purely for pleasure. The present work, for instance, has been painted on a board with a very distinctive grain which creates a sense of shimmering heat and light in the pale blue sky. Munnings contrasts the vibrant green fields with the foliage of the trees which is slowly turning orange, implying an early autumn day, not dissimilar to that in Withypool looking towards Winsford Hill, Exmoor, from 1956, sold at Christie's, South Kensington on 12 March 2015, lot 49 for £158,500.
In 1940 Castle House in Dedham, Munnings's principal residence, was requisitioned by the army and he and Violet decamped to Exmoor on a more permanent basis. But with his election as President of the Royal Academy in 1944 his Exmoor idyll was intruded upon with a stream of letters, telegrams and requests to attend the Academy in war-torn London. However, they continued to return to their beloved Devon over the years where Munnings produced some of his most personal and evocative landscapes, and these works have helped establish him as one of Britain's foremost impressionist painters.
We are grateful to Lorian Peralta Ramos for her assistance in preparing this catalogue entry. The painting will be included in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the work of Sir Alfred Munnings.