Biography

Sir Alfred Munnings was an English figurative painter known for his depictions of horses and his outspoken dislike of Modernist paintings. Similar to the artist John Singer Sargent, Munnings used Impressionist-like brushstrokes and naturalistic colors to capture moments in the English countryside. "What are pictures for?” Munnings asked. “To fill a man's soul with admiration and sheer joy, not to bewilder and daze him.” Born on October 8, 1878 in Suffolk, United Kingdom, he studied at the Norwich School of Art, before travelling to Paris where he encountered the works of Claude Monet. When the First World War broke out, Munnings enlisted, despite having the use of only one eye owing to an accident in 1899. He became an army horse trainer near Reading, and later went to France as an official war artist attached to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade. In 1944, the artist was elected president of the Royal Academy of Art. In his valedictory speech, heard on the radio by millions, he famously lambasted Modernism, claiming that Picasso and Matisse had corrupted art. Munnings died on July 17, 1959 in Dedham, United Kingdom. His works are in the collections of the Manchester Art Gallery and the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.