Sir Alfred James Munnings is acclaimed as the greatest equestrian artist of the twentieth century, being recognized specifically for his energetic hunting and sporting scenes. He is equally recognized for his very personal interpretations of the English landscape and was an exquisite portrait painter. A figurative painter who outwardly rejected Modernism, Munnings’ style and brushstrokes were influenced by Impressionism, using naturalistic colours to depict the English countryside and surrounding areas. Munnings was born in Mendham, Suffolk in 1878. His father was a miller and Munnings was brought up on a working mill with horses being part of his daily life. This led to his deepening interest in the equine world that would later propel him into becoming the foremost English twentieth century painter of sporting pictures. Munnings career began as an apprentice to a firm of lithographers from 1893 to 1898, where he developed a certain fluency of line in his work. Few painters have been able to surpass his ability to paint with such speed and certainty. Munnings’ skill as a fine artist was further honed whilst attending the Norwich School of Art and upon travels to Paris where he was impressed with en plein air naturalism. Upon returning to England, Munnings devoted his time to painting and set up his own studio in Mendham where he predominantly painted scenes of country life with a focus on horse fairs. In 1898 Munnings lost his sight in his right eye in an accident, but this did not deter him from painting. The following year Munnings exhibited two paintings at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, for which he gained a growing reputation for his painting. His love for the East Anglian landscape and its rural pursuits was further enhanced after a visit to a horse fair in 1901. The enthralling world of gypsy travellers as well as that of hunting and horse racing offered Munnings a wide range of subject matter that would tie in with his passion for the landscape and horses. Munnings visited Cornwall in 1908 and became an important addition to the Newlyn School of artists, finally settling in the artists’ colony at Lamorna in Cornwall in 1911. The First World War greatly influenced Munnings’ preferred equine subject matter. At the outbreak of the War, Munnings enlisted despite having the use of only one eye. Rather than on the front lines, he instead became an army horse trainer near Reading and in 1918 travelled to France as an official war artist attached to the Canadian Expeditionary Force. The oil paintings and sketches that Munnings produced provide an insight into the men of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade and the Canadian Forestry Corps. Munnings paintings demonstrate both the important role of the cavalry on the Western Front and the vital work behind the lines that sustained the war effort. Munnings' wartime artwork and his tendency in this period to focus solely on equestrian work, which was at the time particularly unfashionable, enabled his to rise from his relatively humble beginnings and was pivotal in establishing his success and securing his admittance to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1919, for which he would go on to become president. In 1919 Munnings painted his first racehorse, the winner of the Grand National Pothlyn, when the sport revived after the Second World War, and this was followed by magnificent paintings of large-scale Starts and views of horses on the gallops. A well-known figure on the racing scene, Munnings was allowed privileged access to the side of any racetrack that he cared to choose, to make the rapid sketches essential to his working method. Munnings was elected as President of the Royal Academy from 1944 to 1949, and received a Knighthood in 1944. In his later career, Munnings became a vocal detractor of Modernism, he is famed for a speech he gave in 1949 in which he claimed the work of Cézanne, Matisse and Picasso had corrupted art. Celebrated as a great colourist, Munnings preferred painting outdoors in natural light, even on the coldest of days, only later working up his studies in the studio. Painting with a quick technique, Munnings applied his paint in sure, thick strokes achieving a densely textured surface, thus enlivening the scene despite the monochromatic palette of the English countryside. During his lifetime he was represented by Frost Reed in London and through them his work entered some of the most prestigious private collections of the day. Munnings passed away in 1959 and upon his death his wife turned their home in Dedham into a museum to house his work. His work is also publicly displayed at The Royal Academy, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain, the Royal Collection, in London and the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh and other prestigious museums.