Studio: international art (78.1919)

THE ART OF A. J. MUNNINGS, A.R.A.

u A POINT-TO-POINT MEETING ”
BY A. J. MUNNINGS, A.R.A,

power to hold him. If there is a fashion
for what he paints, he does not paint
to meet it. If there is such a fashion,
it is probably of his own creation. But
some artists do happen to like the same
things which many other people like ; they
become favourites almost in spite of them-
selves. Their taste in life might have run
directly contrary to the popular one, but
they would not have been any better artists
for that. 00000
There has always been in England a true
feeling for the u sporting " picture. This
is one of the fields in which we have had a
tradition. And though Industrialism has
greatly changed the character of English
life by changing its conditions, certain
instincts are so strong in us that they have
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outlived the change. The art which is
related to our national enthusiasms will
always charm us ; and the painter will be
welcome who can take up the theme in a
manner worthy of his famous predecessors.
This is the welcome that has been given to
Mr. Munnings as the painter of the hunt
and the race-meeting. 000
The artist has lately taken to finishing
his paintings with great exactness. It is
the finish of one who lingers long over a
task that is enjoyed, striving with every
additional touch to refine upon the truth
expressed in the one preceding it. “ The
power to finish," it has been said, “ comes
with age." No very young man, perhaps,
can paint a really finished picture. Finish
in the true sense is not a final gloss to make