DOI issue:
No. 319 (October 1919)
DOI article:Wood, T. Martin: The art of A. J. Munnings, A.R.A.
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21359#0015
THE ART OF A. J. MUNNINGS, A.R.A.
"THE VILLAGE FAIR.” BY
A. J. MUNNINGS, A.R.A.
effect into a work of art; they are those
which interested the artist. And it is not
by adopting a purely decorative formula
that realities which are not wanted can be
shut out. The artist looking at life sees
only that which, he can call his own.
Responsibility for the effect and beauty of
his art must always rest with the character
of his own vision ; it cannot be transferred
to the question of whether or not he has
swallowed the most up-to-date artistic
formula. No two people live in the same
world, and it is on the plain of the difference
between your world and mine that art
takes up its mission. This is the faith of
the realists, and Munnings is a realist,, 0
In this article I have wished more par-
ticularly to dwell upon . Mr, Munnings's
pictures of sporting subjects. And, because
it is always more interesting to anticipate
the direction of an artist's development
than to look back upon a phase of work
which he is leaving behind, some time has
been spent in considering here a departure
in his work which circumstances do not
permit us to illustrate fully by our repro-
ductions, I refer to very highly finished
paintings upon which he is at work in his
studio at the present moment. These,
nearly all, are equestrian portraits and por-
traits pf race-horses ; and it can certainly
be said that in canvases of this type he is
going to give us something which not one
of the famous painters of horses who have
preceded him have given us in their highly
conventionalized, but learned art. Admi-
9
"THE VILLAGE FAIR.” BY
A. J. MUNNINGS, A.R.A.
effect into a work of art; they are those
which interested the artist. And it is not
by adopting a purely decorative formula
that realities which are not wanted can be
shut out. The artist looking at life sees
only that which, he can call his own.
Responsibility for the effect and beauty of
his art must always rest with the character
of his own vision ; it cannot be transferred
to the question of whether or not he has
swallowed the most up-to-date artistic
formula. No two people live in the same
world, and it is on the plain of the difference
between your world and mine that art
takes up its mission. This is the faith of
the realists, and Munnings is a realist,, 0
In this article I have wished more par-
ticularly to dwell upon . Mr, Munnings's
pictures of sporting subjects. And, because
it is always more interesting to anticipate
the direction of an artist's development
than to look back upon a phase of work
which he is leaving behind, some time has
been spent in considering here a departure
in his work which circumstances do not
permit us to illustrate fully by our repro-
ductions, I refer to very highly finished
paintings upon which he is at work in his
studio at the present moment. These,
nearly all, are equestrian portraits and por-
traits pf race-horses ; and it can certainly
be said that in canvases of this type he is
going to give us something which not one
of the famous painters of horses who have
preceded him have given us in their highly
conventionalized, but learned art. Admi-
9