 |
|
 |
|
|||||
Sir Alfred James Munnings (English, 1878-1959) Return to Art Collections page Felicia Warburg Rogan has put together a superb collection of British sporting art over a period of almost four decades. In 2002, Mrs. Rogan announced her intention to donate sixteen paintings to the National Sporting Library as a bequest. This year, after selling her Oakencroft Estate, Mrs. Rogan made the decision to give fifteen of the paintings to the Library, with one painting by Munnings remaining as a bequest. Mrs. Rogan’s collection of fifteen paintings spans the 19th and 20th centuries and features top works by British and American masters including Sir Alfred J. Munnings; John Emms; John F. Herring, Jr.; Lionel D.R. Edwards; Michael Lyne; and George Wright. Mrs. Rogan has been an active art collector for almost four decades. “I began my Collection of British Sporting Paintings in the early 1970's and bought many of them from Richard Green in London,” reflected Mrs. Rogan. “I have always loved Munnings and my favorite is one which I still have of Mares in a Field [Rose, Wildbird, Peggy, and Stockings in a Pasture]. But I also discovered George Wright and John Emms and the Sporting Library has my wonderful one of Hounds in a Stable [Foxhounds and a Terrier in a Stable Interior] - always greatly admired and the best of all the Emms I have seen. I am so happy that the Collection is all together at the Sporting Library and over the years will be seen by admirers of these three artists.”
John Emms (English, 1841 – 1912) The Library commemorated the historic gift by hosting a dinner on November 13, 2009, attended by Mrs. Rogan, the Library’s Board of Directors, the Ivy Circle, and other special guests. Jacqueline B. Mars, Vice Chairman of the Board, generously sponsored the elegant dinner. Sir Alfred J. Munnings (1878-1959), who is considered the premier equestrian painter of the 20th century, painted three of the works in the Rogan Collection. Munnings composed hundreds of works during his career and also directed the British Royal Academy for five years from 1944-49. One of the two Munnings’ paintings currently on view at the Library, Shrimp with Ponies in the Ringland Hills near Norwich, was painted in 1911 and depicts the young Gypsy boy tending sleek, contented ponies in a sunlit field. During the summer of that year, Munnings painted a number of canvases of ponies in a sandpit in Ringland Hills in Norwich. The white pony in the Rogan painting closely resembles those that appear throughout the Ringland Hill pictures, including a portrait in the Sir Alfred Munnings Museum in Dedham, England, titled Augereau (1911). Munnings wrote that “Augereau was the most picturesque of white ponies – an artist’s ideal.” The summer heat Munnings described in his writings is well-conveyed by the halo of brushstrokes surrounding the blazing sun near the upper left corner of the canvas. Although best known for his portrayal of fiery Thoroughbred racehorses and staid hunters, Munnings provides a sensitive portrayal of two draft horses in Percherons and Farm Hands in a Barn Interior. Munnings sculpts the full barrel of the white Percheron with cool, mossy green shadows. Narrow slivers of sunlight project onto the rough barn walls. The two Munnings paintings are the first by this artist to be acquired by the Library for its permanent collection. Earlier this year, the Library’s very popular exhibition, Reflections on a Life with Horses: Paintings by Sir Alfred Munnings from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art, attracted hundreds of visitors, and Munnings was the focus of the Library’s inaugural symposium in February. A third painting by Munnings, Rose, Wildbird, Peggy, and Stockings in a Pasture, will be given to the Library by Mrs. Rogan as a bequest. It is a significant work in the artist’s oeuvre, as Munnings discussed it in his autobiography, The Second Burst. Another renowned English animal painter from the generation before Munnings, John Emms (1841-1912), painted Foxhounds and a Terrier in a Stable Interior (illustrated on the cover of the Spring 2008 newsletter) and Gone to Ground—A Grey Hunter with Foxhounds and a Terrier. The first canvas is an almost life-size portrayal of foxhounds at rest in a large box stall accompanied by a perky white Jack Russell terrier. Turner Reuter remarked that, “Today, John Emms is the most sought after hound painter of any nationality and his work is rarely dated...If there is a finer example anywhere of his work, I have yet in my career to see it.”The second Emms painting depicts a patient gray hunter, surrounded by hounds and a terrier, awaiting its rider who has apparently ventured into the brush. Mrs. Rogan also contributed two framed sets of vignettes - one of foxhunting and one of farmyard animals by the British artist John F. Herring, Jr (1820-1907). The remaining nine works record scenes of foxhunting. Lionel Edwards (1878-1966), perhaps the most noted twentieth-century British sporting artist after Munnings, painted The Quorn, showing mounted foxhunters thundering across the celebrated hunting territory in the county of Leicestershire, England. It is the first oil painting by Edwards in the Library’s collection. Frederick M.M. Warburg with the Middleburg Hunt at Goose Creek and Middleburg Hunt, Full Cry with the Blue Ridge in the Distance by British artist, Michael Lyne(1912-1989), each relate to Mrs. Rogan’s family’s historical ties to Middleburg. Her uncle, Frederick M.M. Warburg, son of prominent New York banker, Felix M. Warburg, purchased two parcels of land in Middleburg in the 1930’s, establishing Snake Hill Farm (the land today is owned by the Goodstone Inn). Warburg brought Lyne to the United States in 1949 to paint foxhunting compositions, including two scenes of the Middleburg Hunt. Warburg himself appears on horseback in the Goose Creek picture, a scene recognizable to those who have hunted in Middleburg Hunt territory along Foxcroft Road. A series of six paintings by British artist, George Wright (1860-1942) [At the Kennels; Out of Reach, A Fox at Bay on a High Wall; Closing In; two works titled A Treed Fox; and In on the Death] documents the several stages of the pursuit of a fox. Both Wright and his brother, Gilbert, worked as illustrators early in their careers, and their works were published in calendars and catalogs. All but one of the Wright paintings in the Rogan donation were painted en grisaille (black-and-white) and may have served as illustrations. The group of Wright paintings also includes a full-color composition of A Treed Fox. Mrs. Rogan’s remarkable collection of paintings graced the walls of the Founders’ Room as a true feast for the eyes. That evening, Reuter concluded his remarks about Mrs. Rogan’s historic donation by saying, “So, Felicia, I take my hat off to you. Ever on the cutting edge, you are among the first to recognize the importance of the National Sporting Library and our new museum as a repository for the paintings that celebrate the country life that we all love, and are so fortunate to live. Your generosity will not only bring great joy to this community forever, but will ensure that this institution will guard sporting art’s rightful place in both the history of art and of human culture.”
|
|||||
