The Sketcher: Sir Alfred Munnings

Celebrated in art history and the auction market for his realistic depictions of stately horses, Sir Alfred Munnings’s oeuvre extended beyond the reins of the equestrian realm. Examples of the artist’s most compelling and evocative work can be found in his lush landscapes of the English countryside, such as The Sketcher, ca. 1928 and Untitled (The Artist’s Backyard).

As Britain’s most revered Impressionist painter of the 20th century, the preferred settings for Munnings’s landscapes, particularly the Dedham and Flatford regions of Essex (also referred to as “Constable Country”), are thoroughly documented via the artist’s own memoirs and scholarly interest. At the epicentre of Munnings’s looser, more spontaneous en plein air landscapes was his home, Castle House, in which he had become enamoured in the summer of 1919, writing, “I had indeed found my dream house, river and all”.[1]

Despite his monumental success as an equestrian portraitist receiving commissions all across Britain, Europe, and the Americas, it was evident from his autobiography and letters home to his beloved wife, Violet McBride, that painting the Dedham landscape was Munning’s form of artistic freedom, stating, “After the first World War I, I was receiving letters asking me to paint somebody on a horse. Opening such letters, too often I gave way to a burst of petulant rage… I wanted to be painting the English scene.”[2]

This freedom of artistic expression is epitomized in The Sketcher, ca. 1928, which captures the lush riverbanks of the artist’s home region in sumptuous blue and green tones. Almost camouflaged in the greenery is Maurice Codner, a neighbour and British portrait painter, rendering a scene, vastly different from his own commissioned work, en plein air. As Dr. Bill Teatheredge, Honorary Curatorial Associate at the Munnings Art Museum, notes that the figure in The Sketcher appears to be wearing the same clothing as in other known paintings of Codner in Flatford such as Sketching at Wiston Bridge, offered by Bonhams London in June 2015, and a Maurice Codner painting at Flatford, offered by Sotheby’s London in July 2023.[3] In comparison to the other known paintings of Codner, the looser brushstrokes in The Sketcher render the dynamism of the gentle breeze blowing through the East Anglian landscape.

The Sketcher also notably follows in the art historical precedent of the French Impressionists, namely Édouard Manet’s 1874 painting of Claude Monet on his floating studio housed in the permanent collection of the Neue Pinakothek in Munich. Both works present vignettes of creative freedom beyond the confines and restrictions of a traditional artist’s studio.

Untitled (The Artist’s Backyard), on the other hand, presents a more conventional landscape study, as Munnings captures the late-spring, early-summer light on the burgeoning chestnut trees in the gardens of Castle House. Similar works underline the artist’s “zest as a lyrical interpreter of the East Anglian scene”[4] and were amongst the 309 exhibited in the landmark 1956 Munnings retrospective held at the Royal Academy of Arts Diploma Gallery.

We would like to thank Lorian Peralta-Ramos and Dr. Bill Teatheredge for their assistance in cataloguing this work.

[1] https://www.munningsmuseum.org.uk/archive/.
[2] Alfred J. Munnings and Stanley Booth, Sir Alfred Munnings, 1878-1959: An Appreciation of the Artist and a Selection of His Paintings (Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1986).
[3] Dr. Bill Teatheredge to Alicia Bojkov, “Archive Inquiry: The Sketcher” (Munnings Art Museum, June 30, 2026).
[4] A. E. Richardson, Works by Sir Alfred J. Munnings (Royal Academy of Arts Diploma Gallery, 1956).

ABOUT THE AUCTION

Headlining our major fall 2026 Canadian & International Fine Art auction are works by renowned Canadian artists Cornelius Krieghoff, Gordon Appelbe Smith, Frederick Arthur Verner, A.J. Casson, A.Y. Jackson, and William Kurelek, alongside international offerings by Edouard Cortès and Henri Lebasque. Also featured is a collection of works by Georges Mathieu, David Milne, and Eduardo Paolozzi from an Important Private Collection. Additional highlights include exceptional, unpublished works by Fernand Léger and Sir Alfred James Munnings.

Browse the gallery online.

On View:
Saturday, November 14 from 12 pm to 4 pm
Sunday, November 15 from 12 pm to 4 pm
Monday, November 16 from 10 am to 5 pm
Tuesday, November 17 from 10 am to 7 pm
Wednesday, November 18 from 10 am to 5 pm

Or by appointment.

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