International studio (50.1913)

A. J. Munnings


“ THE INN YARD ”

BY A. J. MUNNINGS

of the qualifying effects of tradition of training,
others less : that is to say, some natures respond
more directly to nature’s call; in others, nature sets
in motion a more elaborate ritual which so modifies
the sensations that the direct appeal is in great
measure lost or at least absorbed by the artificial
medium through which it passes.
The manner in which Mr. Munnings sees is the
extreme of vigilance. The eye and hand and brain
are working at a high pitch of receptivity and
responsiveness, the relations of form and tone and
colour seen for brief moments requiring to register
themselves in the memory with great rapidity.
Of course it is true that experience and the
logical sequence of things makes this easier, so that
what seems impossible to a man of more deliberate
methods becomes fairly within the grasp of a painter
of Mr. Munnings’ calibre, but, at all times, this
swift visualising of fleeting actions requires a most
sensitive brain combined with an extensive
experience.
258

It is a question how far this kind of painting is
susceptible of being carried, for directly the artist
seeks to include more than the eye can catch in its
moment of vision, he is really falsifying the truth
of his impression; the eye can only take in a
generalisation and he must not seek to combine
that with those facts which a lengthened survey
may reveal.
Mr. Munnings has a very delicate and delightful
sense of colour. Now, there are two different ways
in which one may be a colourist: either by a
faithful rendering of the exact hues, or by an
appreciation of those colours which combine or
contrast agreeably. Mr. Munnings seems to me
to respond to the actual colours presented to his
eye, only emphasising them in flashes of pure and
brilliant pigment.
Mr. Munnings’ life-story gives one a clue to the
results which I have tried to analyse, though it is
always hard to know which is cause and which
effect. He was born in Suffolk, and he says his