Alfred James Munnings

1878 - 1959

Sir Alfred James Munnings was a distinguished Suffolk-born landscape and equestrian painter, born in 1878 the same year as another prolific artist and illustrator, Lionel Edwards. Munnings painted predominantly in oil, but also worked in watercolour, and was probably the leading painter of equestrian scenes in the 20th century. His paintings covered a wide range of equestrian sports but as an excellent horseman himself, who hunted regularly with the Norwich staghounds and the Dunston Harriers, he painted many scenes of hunting and horse racing. At fourteen years of age he was apprenticed to a Norwich printer, designing and drawing advertising posters for the next six years, also attending the Norwich School of Art. He became a full-time painter when his apprenticeship ended, although he lost the sight in his right eye in an accident in 1898 it did not effect his determination and ability to paint. Munnings exhibited at the RA from 1898 and was Knighted in 1944.

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