Sir Alfred James Munnings, P.R.A., R.W.S.
(British, 1878-1959)
The Kilkenny Horse Fair, 1922
oil on canvas
signed lower left A.J. MUNNINGS
20 x 24in (50.8 x 61cm)
Provenance:
With Richard Green, London.
The collection of George H. Bostwick, New York.
Sold Sothebys, New York, 2 November 2001, lot 209.

Exhibited:
Castle Museum, Norwich, Loan Collection of Pictures by A.J. Munnings R.A., August-September 1928, no. 105.
Wildenstein, New York, Alfred J. Munnings Images of the Turf and Field, April-June 1983, no. 34.

Literature:
A.J. Munnings, The Second Burst, Bungay, 1951, pp. 140-141.
Sothebys, London, An English Idyll, 2001, p. 114, no. 61.

Footnote:
Sir Alfred James Munnings was born in East Anglia, the son of one of the largest millers in the Waveney Valley and grew up surrounded by the activity of a busy working mill with horses and horse-drawn carts arriving daily. His affinity for horses developed as he visited rural horse fairs and was captivated by their energy and the local characters in attendance.

The present view with St. Marys Cathedral in the distance, is a dramatic scene with the central brown stallion rearing as his handlers struggling to settle him, flanked by two grey horses, within the vast crowd of attendees. Around the central activity Munnings skillfully captures engaging vignettes as an onlooker to the fray stands atop a stone wall next to a bare legged boy, while a little white terrier sniffs the ground beneath. To the left a smiling young woman with long red hair and a blue cape embraces her beau, seemingly unaffected by the excitement behind them.

The enduring inspiration Munnings derived from these events is evident by the number of works he executed on this theme including A Suffolk Horse Fair, Lavenham, 1901 (Sir Alfred Munnings Art Museum), The Horse Fair, 1904 (Castle Museum, Norwich) and The Fair, Lamorna, Penzance, circa 1912, closely resembles the composition of the work offered here with many of the same compensational elements. Another version of the Kilkenny Horse Fair was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1923 (no. 387) and again in 1926 (no. 431) after Munnings had presented it as his diploma work at the Royal Academy in 1925.

We are grateful to Dr Bill Teatheredge, curatorial researcher at The Munnings Art Museum for his 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 in 2022.

Framed 26 x 30

The canvas has been relined. Possibly a painting Munnings lined himself. Picture was not painted on a stretcher but was lined in order to be stretched. There are a few scattered areas of hairline paint cracks and very fine craquelure, particularly in the sky. The varnish has yellowed in the lower right corner. There is a small line of fluorescence measuring approximately 1 inch in length along the center part of the extreme top edge, partially covered by the frame. There are a few small lines of fluorescence along the extreme bottom edge, which are possibly due to pigment. There is light surface dust throughout.