Contemporary paintings inspired by Sir Alfred Munnings go on sale

Your chance to own artworks created by some of Britain and Ireland’s best equestrian and plein-air painters

During August 2019, The Munnings Art Museum staged a recreation of a First World War field camp scene on its lawn, in addition it invited a select group of leading equestrian and plein air artists to capture the various scenes and tableau, created by the re-enactment group, ‘History Revisited’.

Among the bell tents, field horses and authentically-uniformed actors, the painters set up their easels make a variety of different studies of the camp scene. These were then taken back to their studios to made into complete paintings.

The resultant, completed studio paintings – along with the original studies – are now on display at the Munnings Art Museum. They are located not only in Sir Alfred Munning’s former home, Castle House, but also the very studio in which he himself created so many famous artworks.

The contemporary paintings will be displayed until Sunday 3 November – the same day that the exhibition which inspired the exercise, Behind the Lines: Sir Alfred Munnings, War Artist, 1918, also closes.

Director, Jenny Hand said:

“All the paintings in this free admission exhibition are for sale and a portion of the money raised from each sale will be donated to the Museum, to support its ongoing programme of exhibitions and events,

“This is a wonderful opportunity to buy and own a beautiful work of art, inspired by one our greatest painters of the 20^th century.”

Visitors may also wish to use the contemporary exhibition as the perfect excuse to enjoy the Behind the Linesshow before it closes next month.

Though he later came to be renowned as one of England’s finest equestrian painters, it was Munnings’ depictions of the activities of Canadian troops serving in eastern France in 1918, that established him as a remarkably skilled war artist. He sketched and painted landscapes, battle scenes and, naturally, horses to document life on the fighting front and the vital logistical work taking place behind the lines.

He was stationed with the Canadian Cavalry Brigade and Canadian Forestry Corps and at the war’s end his paintings were bought by the Canadian government.

Behind the Lines brought forty-one of Munnings’ war paintings, alongside the sketches which inspired them, back from Ottawa (where the entire collection is now housed) for this critically-acclaimed exhibition.  

In turn, the exhibition inspired the Museum’s annual Plein Air Paint Out, with specialist artists invited to Essex to capture scenes that would have been wholly familiar to Munnings one hundred years previously.  

For more information about the contemporary art display and sale, Behind the Lines and The Munnings Art Museum follow @AlfredMunnings on Twitter, like the ‘Munnings Art Museum’ Facebook page or visit www.munningsmuseum.org.uk. Questions relating to all of the above can be answered by contacting the Museum office on 01206 322 127.