Gypsy Life

Artist Sir Alfred Munnings (Mendham, Suffolk, England, 1878 - 1959)

DateSeptember 1920

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 100.5 cm, Width: 126 cm

AcquisitionPurchased in 1921 with income from the Macdonald Bequest.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG003056

Keywords

About MeSir Alfred Munnings was one of Britain's most successful and popular artists. He specialised in scenes of horses. Gypsies were also often a feature of his work. A consummate draughtsman, he spurned the use of photographs and disliked modern art - rating Picasso as 'just a showman'.

Munnings always painted the same group of Romanies. He would follow them to Alton, in Hampshire, where they travelled to take part in the hop-picking. He thought they were very picturesque. He particularly admired their jet-black hair, bizarre costumes, colourful caravans, tribe of children and crowd of dogs.

Munnings was an excellent horse painter. His paintings convey a vivid sense of life and movement and the horses appear as though they belong in their pictorial environment.