THE NATIONAL SPORTING LIBRARY NEWSLETTER,
Spring 2002

FELICIA WARBURG ROGAN SPORTING ART INITIATIVE

Shrimp with Ponies in Ringland Hills near Norwich, by Sir Alfred J. Munnings

The National Sporting Library is pleased to announce that Felicia Warburg Rogan, of Charlottesville, Va., has made a commitment to donate 14 important sporting paintings to the Library. Under the terms of the bequest, the Library has established the Felicia Warburg Rogan Sporting Art Initiative to encourage other collectors to follow her example.

Mrs. Rogan's gift includes paintings by English artists Sir Alfred J. Munnings, John Frederick Herring Jr., Lionel Edwards, Michael Lyne and George Wright.

"Mrs. Rogan's paintings are all wonderful examples of late 19th- and early 20th-century British sporting art," says F. Turner Reuter Jr., a director of the NSL who introduced Mrs. Rogan to the Library. "We are particularly pleased that she wishes to use her gift to encourage others to make the NSL known for its fine sporting art as well as for its renowned and comprehensive collection of sporting books."

Mrs. Rogan's gift of her three paintings by Munnings is significant. The first, Percherons and Stablemen is an early oil, 24 x 20 inches. Reuter, who is familiar with Mrs. Rogan's collection, describes the painting: "This work portrays countrymen and work horses inside a barn. The pigments are dark and the artist wrestles with scarce light and deep shadow in the composition."

The second Munnings, Shrimp in the Ringland Hills near Norwich, is an oil of the same dimensions, but oriented horizontally. It shows Shrimp, a gypsy who posed for many of Munnings's paintings, lounging in the grass surrounded by ponies.

Reuter notes that this work, probably painted in the 1920s, is a classic plein air effort, a technique Munnings addressed in his autobiography. "This painting has the artist's characteristic color and light in bold, free brush strokes," says Reuter.

The third Munnings is a large oil, 28 x 36 inches, entitled Rose, Wildbird, Peggy and Stockings. The painting is illustrated in The Second Burst (1951), the second volume of Munnings's autobiography.

Reuter says, "This is a portrait of four horses standing under a demanding sky with Constable clouds in a mown field by the quintessential ancient English oak. His composition harks back to classic images of similar subjects by the likes of Stubbs and Ferneley, yet Munnings juxtaposes finely painted horses with a freely rendered oak, gnarled and broken, a stylistic contrast he often revisited."

Sir Alfred James Munnings (1878-1959) was regarded as one of the best painters of his day. He initially studied art at Norwich Art School, then went to the Académie Julian in Paris. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1898. A year later, he lost the sight in one eye, but continued his work undaunted. An avid country sportsman, he hunted with the Norwich Stag Hounds and the Dunston Harriers. Although he painted a wide variety of subjects, he was best known for his portrayal of racehorses and racecourses, foxhunting and gypsies with their horses. He exhibited 298 paintings at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibitions over a 60-year period. He was president of the Royal Academy from 1944-1959.

Mrs. Rogan's painting by Lionel Edwards (1874-1954), The Quorn at Billesdon, is a large horizontal oil, 28 x 36 inches. It is illustrated in the entry on Edwards in Sally Mitchell's book, The Dictionary of Sporting Artists (1985), the standard reference on British sporting art.

"The Quorn at Billesdon captures the English countryside on a foxhunting day in open shire country," says Reuter. "The huntsman gallops near the hounds at full cry quartering to the viewer, the whips and master close at hand, and the field desperate to stay in touch with the leaders."

Edwards studied art with artist Sir Arthur Stockdale Cope (1857-1940), at Heatherly School in London and with W. Frank Calderon (1865-1943) at his school in Kensington. A good horseman who loved foxhunting, Edwards was invited to hunt with nearly every pack in England. He received commissions to paint the hunts at the beginning of the meets and out on the land. The landscapes, skies and horses in his paintings are colorful and accurate.

Mrs. Rogan's gift of two smaller vignettes by John Frederick Herring Jr. (1820-1907) are a rare, matched pair comprising two sets of eight vignettes in tondo, one set of foxhunting subjects and one set of farmyard scenes. These 16 compositions, Reuter notes, are "little jewels, which show the artist's mastery of paintings in miniature."

Like his father, noted sporting artist John Frederick Herring Sr. (1795-1865), Herring Jr. painted many individual canvases of English life and field sports. He achieved acclaim for painting scenes ranging from quiet farmyards to lively foxhunts and horse races.

George Wright (1860-1942), well known for his paintings of horses, foxhunting and polo, is represented in Mrs. Rogan's gift by six oil paintings. Reuter describes the paintings as a particularly interesting group. "Five of the six oils are painted en grasailles executed in shades of gray. The sixth, entitled A Treed Fox, is a duplicate of one of the en grisailles executed in color," says Reuter.

A foxhunter himself, Wright hunted with the Surrey and Old Burstow. Early in his career, he worked with his brother, Gilbert Scott Wright (1880-1958), illustrating calendars and catalogs. Beginning in 1925, he was under commission to Ackermann's, the renowned London publisher and art dealer, with exhibitions there and at Grand Central Galleries.

Two watercolors by Michael Lyne (1912-1989) of the Middleburg Hunt round out the Rogan bequest. The paintings, commissioned by Mrs. Rogan's uncle, the late Frederick M.M. Warburg, date from the late 1940s and 1950s. The scenes illustrate the Middleburg Hunt near the kennels and the fields of Snake Hill which Warburg owned at the time.

Lyne, the son of a minister, attended Rossall and studied briefly at Cheltenham Art College, but was otherwise self-taught. Lyne loved art, hounds and hunting and received commissions for numerous foxhunting pictures. His work has been exhibited widely in England and America. He illustrated several books on foxhunting, including his own Hounds, Horses & Country (1938), A Parson's Son (1974) and From Litter to Later On (1973).

NSL Chairman George L. Ohrstrom Jr. expressed the board's appreciation for this extraordinary development for the Library: "Mrs. Rogan's initiative and the generosity of her gift both continues and broadens the mission of the National Sporting Library to preserve the culture of turf and field sports for generations to come."