he Munnings Art Museum has many studies and sketches for these works including this painted study of Queen Mary herself which features in our new exhibition Munnings: Colour & Light.

In 1936 Lord Tollemache, of Helmingham in Suffolk, commissioned Munnings to paint his one and only posthumous portrait which was of King George V riding his pony, Jock.

A study is in our collection at the Munnings Art Museum.

Munnings painted Jock, who was still alive, at Sandringham as well as the background landscape for the painting. Queen Mary didn’t warm to the picture and so it was presented to the people of Ipswich and is in the collection of Ipswich Museum.

The Munnings Art Museum owns a number of painted studies and pencil sketches of the Gold State Coach along with numerous studies of streets decorated with flags and banners. All of these date from around 1937.

The existence of so many studies suggests that Munnings was preparing for a finished picture that never came to fruition. This was possibly due to the abdication of King Edward VIII in late 1936.

Munnings painted King George VI’s racehorse, Sun Chariot, in 1942. The horse had won the 1942 1,000 Guineas race, the Oaks and The St. Leger.

Both the Munnings Art Museum and the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket have studies of this horse.

King George VI bestowed Munnings with the honour of Knight Commander of the (Royal) Victorian Order in 1947.

Munnings wrote of the occasion: “I moved along and in turn came to the King. As His Majesty hung the ribbon over my neck and fixed the Star, he said: " Your hand is in a sling. What have you done? " " I slipped, and sprained my wrist, Sir." I did not like to confess that it was the gout!”

In 1956, at the age of 77, Munnings was persuaded to paint the late Queen’s racehorse Aureole. This was the last of Munnings' Royal Portraits and painted in respite from ill health. The finished painting is titled “H M The Queen and Aureole in the Paddock at Epsom before the Coronation Cup at the Derby meeting, 1954” and is in the Royal Collection.

This study for this painting is on display at the Munnings Art Museum in the 2023 exhibition Munnings: Colour & Light .

Munnings also painted a study of three of the late Queen’s horses “Corporal, Biscuit and Aureole with Jockeys Up” which he exhibited in Bond Street in 1956. He gave the proceeds of its sale (£1,000) to the Hungarian Relief Fund.

In 2019 the Munnings Art Museum partnered with the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, to bring 45 of Munnings' First World War pictures of the Canadian Cavalry and Forestry Corps to the UK from Canada. This was the first time all the paintings had been exhibited together in the UK for a century.

The museum was almost overwhelmed with visitors throughout the seven month exhibition. Towards the end of it the museum welcomed a very special visitor, HRH The Princess Royal. Princess Anne enjoyed a tour of the exhibition and other paintings on display. Through her experience of horses and the military she gave staff and volunteers fascinating insights into details depicted on horses, soldiers and equipment. It was a very enjoyable occasion.

In light of the upcoming celebrations this curation finishes with the joyous painting Tagg's Island .

This painting depicts Alfred Munnings’ friends and models. The location for the picture is Tagg’s Island, a small island which nestles in the Thames, a short distance from Hampton Court.

The painting was completed in 1919 and exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1920. It perhaps captures the spirit of celebration following the end of the First World War. Munnings loose and painterly style enhances the carefree mood.

This less polished version of Tagg’s Island , which Munnings preferred, is in the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke on Trent.

In his autobiography Munnings reminisced, rather nostalgically,: “Where are all the jolly crew-friends of my bachelor life-who sat for it: Louie, Connie, Joyce, Mercer, Waters and the rest?”

Waters, believed to be the central male figure, was the sculptor friend who assisted Munnings in creating the memorial statue of Lt. Horner, at Mells Church, Somerset. Joyce Mercer, possibly third left, was a book illustrator working in the 1920s and 1930s whose work included illustrating Hans Christian Anderson’s Fairy Tales.