Paintings by renowned equine and portrait artists go under hammer
Sir Alfred Munnings is rightly celebrated as the master of equine art; his lifelong affinity with the horse is reflected in his insightful and vital equine portraits that capture the grace and power of the animals, and his ‘Lord Astor on Shooting Stick with Horses’ will be sold in Tennants Auctioneers' British, European and Sporting Art Sale on July 13 with an estimate of £80,000 to100,000 (all figures exclude buyer's premium).
The painting is a sketch for ‘A Summer Evening at Cliveden, Waldorf Astor, Second Viscount Astor (1879-1952), seated’, which is held in the Cliveden Estate Collection in Buckinghamshire, now managed by the National Trust.
William Waldorf, 2nd Viscount Astor, was one of the greatest owners and breeders of his day, greatly admired by Munnings.
The pair felt a deep kinship, both happiest when surrounded by horses. In the present sketch, Astor and his trainer Mr William Guy inspect mares and foals as they are led, at Cliveden.
From the same private collection is a watercolour by Munnings; ‘In the Woods Near Noyon 1918 Attach. Our Retreat’ was executed while the artist was serving in the First World War with the Canadian Cavalry (est: £3,000-5,000).
An engaging portrait sketch by the renowned George Romney, which has been in the same family collection since it was painted, will be offered with an estimate of £20,000-30,000.
The sketch depicts Caesar Hawkins and is thought to have been in preparation for a full-length portrait of Caesar, his sister Louisa Anne, and their mother Emma Hawkins (née Adair), which was once in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
The final painting was long in the planning. Mrs Hawkins' first sitting was in 1776, with Caesar having two sittings in the summer of the same year, and younger sister Louisa Anne sitting in 1778.
Caesar was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and was a Captain in the 8th Light Dragoons before his death in 1806.
Four works by Victorian equestrian artist Heywood Hardy, are on offer from two private collections.
Hardy specialised in equestrian and hunting subjects, often in historical settings. Among the works is Huntsman, Hounds and Members of the Field Before a Castle (est: £8,000-12,000), and Horse Mounted Figures and Others at a Country House Doorway (est: £10,000-15,000).
The Toy Boat by Dutch artist David Adolf Constant Artz, est: £5,000-8,000, depicts a fisherman’s wife and children in sand dunes.
Artz, a member of the Hague School of Artists, specialised in romanticised depictions of the lives of fishermen and their families.
Further works include Self Portrait on Iona by Frances Campbell Boileau Cadell, the Scottish Colourist painter who spent several summers painting on Iona (est: £7,000-9,000), and ‘Grasmere’, a Lake District landscape painted in 1849 by James Baker Pyne (est: £3,000-5,000).