Sir Alfred Munnings Part Three

4/6/2026 12:40:47 PM
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SIR ALFRED MUNNINGS

PART THREE

Having previously made a few short visits to Cornwall, Munnings was impressed with the work of a group of artists who painted plein air and had been influenced by the French painters Millet and Lepage. He had seen and admired the latter's work himself while in Paris. Most of them eventually drifted away, but Stanhope Forbes stayed to form the Newlyn School of Art, and the earlier artists were replaced by a new colony. After hearing glowing accounts from Olive Branson at the Calderon animal painting school, and looking for new inspiration, Munnings packed up in Norfolk and moved down to Cornwall on a permanent basis around 1911. While he never became a student or member of Forbe's Newlyn School of Art himself, he became lasting friends with some of the artists who were associated with it, in particular Dame Laura Knight, an accomplished artist in her own right, and wife of fellow painter Harold Knight.

Munnings found lodging first at Chywoone Farm in Trewarveneth, then moved to Penzer House, a boarding establishment in Newlyn owned by Mrs. Beer, where the Knights, who arrived about 1907, were also living.

Penzer House, Newlyn 1903 by Elizabeth Adela Forbes (1859-1912 - wife of Stanhope Forbes)

Jean Goodman wrote in her biography of Munnings that Harold Knight disliked him intensely, yet in another biography, Laura Knight: A Life, written by Barbara C. Morden, she related that while first jarred by his personality, Harold grew to accept him, that he and Laura accompanied Munnings and his dog Taffy on long hikes along the cliffs, and that he became Munnings' "friend and counsellor" over the following years.

On later relocating to Lamorna, he secured a large converted loft with a skylight, where he established a studio upstairs in which to work, and stabled his horses in the lower level. He then hired a local youth, Ned Osborne, as a groom for the horses and model for his paintings. His brown mare and the dog Taffy had been shipped down to him from Mendham and he then acquired a grey mare called Grey Tick from a local farmer. Both horses became models for his paintings, and he used the brown mare to ride to hounds with the Western Hunt. The little white pony Augereau, featured in so many of his earlier works was left behind at home, given to his mother to pull her small gig.

In Lamorna Cove he took a room at the Cliff House Temperance Hotel, owned by Jessie Jory. Built in the 1870s it was originally used as the home of the quarry manager. At the time it also included a school and chapel for the workers and their families, then became a hotel some years after the local quarry closed.

The Cliff House -- vintage postcard of Jory's Temperance Hotel. Photo by Paul, Penzance

In the center of the village was the rival establishment, the Lamorna Inn, owned by Mrs. Jory's estranged husband. Known by locals as "The Wink", a nod to its supposed past as a haven for smugglers, it was where the locals gathered, including many of the artists.

The Lamorna Inn 1915

(It's said that the figure lounging in the open doorway is a self-portrait of Munnings himself.)

Also living in the area was Colonel Thomas Paynter, who resided at Boskenna House, an expansive estate that included the cove and surrounding land. Quite a character himself, Paynter welcomed and encouraged artists to settle there, providing housing for a number of them. He hosted many parties that included, among others, notables such as Lawrence of Arabia, Albert Einstein, the writer D.H. Lawrence, and Guglielmo Marconi, who developed the wireless radio transmitters and receivers that sent the first transatlantic wireless signal.

Lamorna Cove, a few miles from Newlyn and reached through a wooded valley, had once been a shipping point for granite quarried in the area. The original pier is now in poor condition due to damage from storms. Once the quarrying had ceased in 1911, the area became popular with artists like Munnings, and in particular some from the Newlyn School, including Samuel "Lamorna" Birch, and Harold and Laura Knight, among others.

Lamorna Cove Copyright Andrew Curtis CC BY-SA 2.0

Flagstaff Cottage, home of Samuel Birch, perched high up on the hill on the left, with Tregurnow Cliff above it -- vintage 1920s postcard

A portion of the Lamorna stream, which runs through the valley to the coast in Lamorna Cove

Impressions of Cows in a Stream, Lamorna 1912

In 1912, Munnings bought a cow from Mr. Jory and struck a deal with Mr. Hoskins, his landlord at the time and a local farmer/miller, where the latter could have all the milk she produced, as well as calves, if in turn Munnings could keep her at the farm with the herd, and borrow her back as a model for paintings whenever he wanted. Taught to lead on a halter rope, this worked to Munnings' advantage, as one or two other cows would follow her where ever he set her up to paint. He considered her an excellent subject matter and took great pleasure especially in painting her in Lamorna Stream near Samuel Birch's studio.

The circle of friends he had made and socialized with after his first arrival eventually included Florence Carter-Wood, who he met through the group of Newlyn School artists. An emotionally troubled young woman, she represented a brief and disastrous period in his life. They married in January 1912 -- she attempted suicide on the night of their wedding, but was rescued through the efforts of Munnings and Laura Knight. Seemingly recovered from the act and promising she would not repeat it, Munnings likely felt he could concentrate on his painting again, and was off to various locations for extended periods of time.

A perfect subject on horseback, he did several versions of Florence that included "The Morning Ride' in the title.

The Morning Ride, Florence Munnings on Horseback 1913

Florence at Sunset 1912

Like others of the local artists, he also painted residents and models from the area.........

Phyllis Vipond Crocker in Lamorna Cove 1913

In 1913, Munnings first met the future Poet Laureate John Masefield at a London exhibit of the artist's work at the Leicester Galleries. Masefield, who liked to draw, and was for years an amateur art critic, particularly admired a painting of a man and mare. He was able to strike up a conversation with Munnings, expressing how much he liked it, the result of which Munnings gave it to him as a gift. With the poet who liked to draw, and the artist who liked to write, it was the beginning of a life-long friendship.

Toward the end of March that year, he and Ned rode the brown mare and Grey Tick the roughly fourteen or fifteen miles to Zennor, with Mr. Jory bringing all of his painting supplies to him by wagon. Stabling his horses with farmer Berryman, he rented accommodations for himself and Ned from a Mrs. Griggs, and spent five weeks painting in the area, using the two horses with Ned as a model.

Mrs. Griggs' home on the right, where Munnings and Ned lodged

Photo copyright and courtesy of Beth Munnings-Winter

The kitchen where Ned ate with their landlady - the old stone hearth in the background.

Photo copyright and courtesy of Beth Munnings-Winter

Western Hunt, Zennor Hill 1912

While still in Zennor, Munnings also painted Ned on Grey Tick dressed in farm clothes. A smaller, more loosely painted version was purchased by a gallery in Australia -- the larger piece, The Grey Horse, begun in 1913, was later finished after the war.

The Grey Horse, Ned Osborne on Grey Tick

Ned Osborne on Grey Tick 1913

After that excursion ended, he returned Grey Tick to the farmer she had come from, and having a great fondness for grey horses, he went to Ireland where he bought another grey mare, along with a bay horse, St. Patrick. The mare, previously owned by a judge and used to pull a carriage, made a fine hunter, much admired by the huntsman and other members of the Western Hounds.

The Grey Mare

Patrick

In late summer of that year he spent six weeks in Hampshire painting the hop-pickers, as suggested earlier by Olive Branson while at the Calderon animal painting school in Finchingfield. This annual activity usually started around the last week of August. Staying at the Swan Hotel in Alton, he traveled back and forth to the gypsy camp, which, set up in a field full of caravans, was populated by roughly 200 to 300 adults, children, horses, dogs and chickens. Inspired by Branson's own work, he did this for several different years producing some very fine paintings.

Departure of the Hop-Pickers 1913

Hop-Pickers Hampshire

When the hop-pickers packed up and left, he did also, returning to hunt with the Western Hounds in the fall with his new Irish mare, who was also used for paintings with Ned aboard.

The Whip, Trevelloe Wood, Cornwall

Bridlepath through Trevelloe Woods

Gone to the Cliff

Two of Them 1913

At some point early that year, Munnings had met with the accomplished equine artist Lucy Kemp-Welch at the Lyceum Club in London, where, at Lucy's instigation, they discussed forming the Society of Animal Painters. They soon had a group of other artists on board, including Lionel Edwards, Frank Calderon, and Arthur Wardle among others. (However, while Munnings was very positive about forming the group and supported the election of Lucy as president of the organization, there doesn't seem to be any concrete evidence that he became an actual member, and because it was a small group, there is no complete list of members found.) They held their first exhibit at the Leicester Galleries in January of the following year, but the outbreak of World War One brought any further shows to a halt. There were a few exhibits following the end of the War, with 1932 thought to be the last one held. The young artist Edward Seago submitted a circus-themed painting for membership that year, but was rejected. Lucy offered a critique and advice, and although he didn't try again, they remained friends. Eventually the art organization disbanded.

Portrait of an Equestrienne: Florence Munnings on the Grey Mare -- circa 1914

Attending the races at St. Buryan brought back memories of his earlier experience, the ones he had gone to at Bungay, in celebration of his first successful entries in the Royal Academy Exhibit in 1899.

The Start of St. Buryan Races 1914

Two years after her first attempt at suicide, in July of 1914 Florence was successful in her second try, and despite Munnings' and Laura Knight's desperate efforts to again revive her, she died. Munnings never mentioned this part of his life in his auto-biography. Critics have offered this as a measure of callousness, lack of love, and uncaring on his part, but Laura spoke of him as being utterly devastated, and the worry and concern that his friends in the community had for him in the weeks following. She also spoke of how she and her husband felt that whoever Florence had married would have met with disaster, that "she had no stability of character or sense of responsibilities", and referred to Florence's "refined cruelties" to Munnings, which the Knights witnessed and found so disturbing. While he chose to block the whole thing from his memory as best he could, unfortunately it served as inspiration for the work of fiction Summer in February, and the screenplay by the author Jonathon Smith for the movie that followed, loosely based on fact, very heavy on the fiction aspect, and with none of Florence's "cruel" behavior towards Munnings noted.

Courtesy of The West Briton, Truro, Cornwall

Edith Florence (Carter-Wood) Munnings

Tate Gallery CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Gravestone of Edith Florence Munnings

Courtesy of artist Jeremy Sanders (www.jeremysanders.co.uk)

War broke out in Europe just days after Florence's death and Munnings traveled to London to enlist, but was rejected due to his blind eye. In the fall, a second attempt to enlist shortly afterward in Winchester was also declined. He asked if he could be a farrier, and was told by the examining doctor that they couldn't teach an artist how to shoe horses!

Thwarted again he returned to Hampshire where he had been painting the hop-pickers. While there, he received an alarming telegram from Ned saying that the grey mare and Patrick had been confiscated by the Army and were at the Union Hotel stables in Penzance. Dropping everything, he took a train to London, and the following morning the Riviera Express to Penzance, arriving that evening. Finding the officer in charge, fortunately a friend, he pleaded with him for help to get his horses back, producing his papers showing that he had attempted to enlist but had been rejected, and pointing out that the horses were his painting models and contributed to his livelihood. The officer kindly took him to the stables that night and released the horses. Munnings traveled to Lamorna in the dark and rain, riding the grey mare and leading Patrick. Having secured them with Ned the next day, he took the train to Paddington and was back in Hampshire picking up where he left off with his painting. (With the outbreak of war, the British Army requisitioned large numbers of horses from the populace. If proof could not be provided that they were of essential use to their owners, they became military property.)

Done in Hampshire for the year, Munnings tried anew to enlist in Bodmin, but again was turned down. Ned went to work in the coal mines in Wales to aid the war effort. Not knowing how long the war would last Munnings took the grey mare and Patrick to a Mr. Rogers, who had a large farm in St. Erth, to board the horses with him, with the request that the farmer have the mare bred each spring as long as she was there. The brown mare brought down from Norfolk he gave to the farmer where she was turned out, something which he later in life said he would not do then. And then he set about waiting.

In 1913 the first restrictions on painting any part of the coast were put in place. Artist friend Laura Knight, working in St. Ives for a period of time, wasn't even permitted to suggest the horizon on the sea in any landscape subjects, and by 1916 restrictions were so severe that artists were forbidden to work outdoors at all along the coast.

Finally in 1917, after writing and appealing to fellow artist Cecil Aldin, who was a purchasing officer in charge of Army Remount Depots around Berkshire, Aldin was able to bring Munnings in, where he was employed as a "strapper" at the Remount Depot in Calcot Park, near Reading, which handled prospective artillery horses. With 1,000 horses per week arriving, Munnings' job was to check them for mange and other skin diseases, treat them if needed, and then pass them on to be shipped to France, where they were used for hauling artillery caissons. He saw them off with sadness over the fate that awaited them.

Canadian-born Lord Beaverbrook (Sir Max Aitken), working to bring attention to the efforts by the Canadians serving in the Western Front, was Officer in Charge of Overseas War Records, and established the Canadian War Memorials' Scheme. Paul Konody, an art critic at two newspapers was put in charge of choosing artists to go to France to produce paintings for the Canadian War Records. Much to Aldin's dismay, after eleven months Munnings was plucked from his job at the Remount Depot to join a group of artists attached to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade to record the war.

The brigade was under the command of General John "Jack" Seely (after the war to become Lord Mottistone), and Munnings, in January of 1918 arrived at Seely's headquarters at Small Foot Wood, near the front-lines with his painting supplies. (Unlike some of his fellow artists who had been able to join the army and become honorary officers, he remained a civilian.) Standing on wooden boards in the mud, his first painting was a portrait of the general mounted on his war horse, Warrior. (Seely related how Munnings even came to ride the great horse himself during the Retreat of March 1918, which was called the Battle of Amiens.) This painting helped to lead to the many commissions for formal equestrian portraits in the ensuing years.

Following the war, General Seely wrote a book about his then famous horse, which Munnings illustrated for him. Although the story-line was different, many years later Seely's book inspired the stage play, War Horse, as well as the Spielberg movie by the same name. The story of what Warrior endured in real life during the war and how he survived to return to England alive is remarkable. Back at home on the Isle of Wight, in later years having gone through two severe winters that affected his health, and with feed for horses difficult to obtain during World War Two, in the spring of 1941 Seely made the difficult decision to have Warrior humanely put down just shy of age 33.

Major-General The Right Honourable J.E.B. Seely

Beaverbrook Collection of War Art -- Canadian War Museum

Courtesy Munnings Art Museum, Dedham, UK

One particularly eye-catching piece was Munnings' imaginary impression of the cavalry in the Battle of Moreuil Wood, The Charge of Flowerdew's Squadron, led by the young lieutenant of the same name, who badly wounded, died days later. All but four of the 150 horses were killed. Although it was finally recognized that mounted cavalry attacks against machine guns and tanks were suicidal and the tactic for the most part was abandoned, between battle causalities, disease, and exposure to harsh conditions, less than one in ten horses survived of the 1.2 million used by the British.

Beaverbrook Collection of War Art -- Canadian War Museum

Courtesy Munnings Art Museum, Dedham, UK

General Seely recollected Munnings showing up one morning 'in plain clothes" where none but uniformed people had been before, and that while Canadian officials never intended for him to join the troops near the front lines, the "whimsical and gallant soul" considered that the best place to be. He primarily worked behind the front lines, however, where some of his best paintings came from. He ate, slept, and rode with the men, was under shellfire with them at one point, and they loved him.

Shelters in Smallfoot Wood

Beaverbrook Collection of War Art -- Canadian War Museum

Courtesy Munnings Art Museum, Dedham, UK

Horses of the 36th Company

Beaverbrook Collection of War Art -- Canadian War Museum

Courtesy Munnings Art Museum, Dedham, UK

Watering Horses, Canadian Troops in France

Norfolk Museum Collection

Colonel Paterson of the Fort Garry's

Beaverbrook Collection of War Art -- Canadian War Museum

Courtesy Munnings Art Museum, Dedham, UK

They were near the Somme when the great German offensive and bombardment began in March/April of 1918, and Munnings was with the brigade during their rout in March. Concerned for his safety, orders were written for him to return to London, and Seely gave him dispatches to deliver to new headquarters in the sea-front town of Paris-Plage. With some of his fine artwork having already preceded him, although more orders had come for him to return to England, upon his arrival two officers from the Canadian Forestry Commission persuaded him to go see their lumberjacks at work in the forests. Munnings wrote that they not only persuaded him, but also "assured him that they were going to kidnap him and all of his paraphernalia and take him with them, beginning at the Forest of Conche in Normandy". (An Artist's Life - pg 313)

Timber was needed on the Western Front to provide surfaces to move over the ground blasted by shells, as well as to build railways, tunnels, trenches, bridges, shelters for the men, animals and supplies, etc. There were roughly 89 sawmills under operation and Munnings wrote in An Artist's Life (pg 315) of the rivalry between the different companies, each of which had 120 horses, as to who had the best teams.

He fell in love with the Canadians, painting the lumberjacks at work, their horses, the logging camps, and even some of the local peasants. Travels took him to several Normandy forests, through vineyards, the town where the painter Courbet was born, and on into eastern France. He did a painting of a tan bull hitched to a plough, with the farmer cleaning the coulter (A June Evening......). When the painting was finished, he was invited to supper. During the course of the meal he was introduced to the farmer's daughters and told, if he cared to stop, he could marry one of them if he liked......

A June Evening in the Jura

Beaverbrook Collection of War Art -- Canadian War Museum

Courtesy Munnings Art Museum, Dedham, UK

Camp at Malbulisson Near Pontarlier

Beaverbrook Collection of War Art -- Canadian War Museum

Courtesy Munnings Art Museum, Dedham, UK

Felling a Tree in the Vosges

Beaverbrook Collection of War Art -- Canadian War Museum

Courtesy Munnings Art Museum, Dedham, UK

A Grey Team, and Forest of Dreux

Beaverbrook Collection of War Art -- Canadian War Museum

Courtesy Munnings Art Museum, Dedham, UK

19th Company

Beaverbrook Collection of War Art -- Canadian War Museum

Courtesy Munnings Art Museum, Dedham, UK

His orders to return home finally caught up with him the beginning of summer and he couldn't put it off any longer, as "other artists had to be sent out". While in Paris awaiting passage home, one evening he witnessed a packed Folies Bergere quickly cleared of attendees when the German's long-range gun, Big Bertha, miles away, began shelling. Collecting and packing up his paintings and sketches at Paris-Plage, he left Boulogne and arrived back in London in June 1918.

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Sir Alfred Munnings Part Three

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