Sir Alfred James Munnings, P.R.A., R.W.S. (British, 1878-1959)Fred Gray - leading home signed 'A.J.Munnings.' (lower left)oil on canvas16 x 21 1/2in (40.7 x 54.6cm)注脚Provenancewith Frost & Reed, London;Acquired from the above by the present owner.Painted at the turn of the century, this work follows the tradition of the British naturalists such as Henry LaThangue, George Clausen and Stanhope Forbes who embraced the idea of depicting real people in their natural environment doing everyday, ordinary tasks. The real world of the rustic was faithfully recorded without being idealized or sentimentalized. Munnings only painted these local characters until 1911 when he moved away from Mendham. What made these scenes poignant was that he personally knew the individual he painted so that he was not only able to paint their type, he could capture something of their personalities. He quotes in his memoirs, "Why I lost my chance then of picture-making with these splendid people is easily explained. They were all around one, a common sight on every farm...No more sleeved waistcoats. No more of those nattily-dressed men...I was a contemporary of it all and saw it as part of life." (An Artist's Life, page 95)This is an open-air moment studied directly from nature from start to finish, a practice to which Munnings was committed. Consequently, he has managed to maintain a quality of freshness and immediacy. Munnings was particularly interested how the light reflected off different textures and how each element absorbed some of the colors of its surroundings.Here Munnings has depicted Fred Grey, who was a local villager in Mendham. His father was "a real Suffolker" who with his mother ran the amusement galleries behind the Red Lion Inn. In the present work, Fred is depicted doing the quotidian task of bringing ponies back from the fields. Munnings enjoyed painting this theme of rustics heading home with their animals because it provided endless possibilities. The artist would switch out ponies and local villagers thereby changing the composition, the distance from the viewer and the placement of the subject on the horizon. (See next lot in this sale).We are grateful to Lorian Peralta-Ramos for providing this catalogue note. The work will be included in her upcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist.