Munnings, Sir Alfred (1878-1959), a British artist, was famed for his paintings of horses, rural scenes, and sporting scenes. Munnings became a fashionable painter of horses and their owners. His painting General Seeley on Horseback (1918) created a demand for his equestrian portraits that lasted throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Munnings was an outspoken critic of abstract art and other styles of modern art.
Alfred James Munnings was born on Oct. 8, 1878, in Mendham, Suffolk, England. He studied art in Norwich and Paris and, from the age of 20, exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy. He became a Royal Academician in 1925. From 1944 to 1949, he was president of the Academy. Munnings was knighted in 1944. He died on July 17, 1959.
