Pictures Of Horses And English Life. With An Appreciation By Lionel Lindsay. Signed, Full vellum binding.
London and New York: Eyre and Spottiswoode Limited; Charles Scribner's Sons, 1927. First edition. Hardcover. Number 220 of a Limited Edition of 250, signed in pencil by the artist, one of the finest British Impressionist painters, on the limitation page.
Sir Alfred Munnings (1878 - 1959) is especially noted for paintings of horses and rural scenes. Here his equine paintings, drawings and sketches are at their finest. These include: mares & foals at the Southcourt Stud; notable persons and their horses; hunting scenes; famous jockeys; racecourses; gypsies and their horses; and the Canadian Cavalry brigade and Canadian Forestry Corps in France.
During the Great War, Munnings was commissioned as an official war artist to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade. He painted many war scenes which included horses, notably General Seely mounted on his horse Warrior and the Charge of Flowerdew's Squadron. Munnings also painted images for the Canadian Forestry Camps, of horses at work in various work camps throughout France. After the war, he was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts and appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. At the end of his career, Munnings painted Queen Elizabeth II, with her race horse Aureole; a version of the work sold at Christie's for over £2 million.
Small folio (11 x 14 1/2"), xii, 199pp, 28 color plates with titled tissue guards and 109 monochrome illustrations. Publisher's full vellum with gilt title, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. A few tissue guards with scattered foxing. Bookseller label at front end paper, The Sporting Gallery and Bookshop, New York.
A very good copy of a scarce work. Very good condition. Item #26142
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