Strathcona Trooper, 1918

In January 1918 Munnings was commissioned by Lord Beaverbrook's Canadian War Memorials Fund to paint the actions of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade on the Western Front. For several months, he immortalised their activities in a series of fluid plein-air studies, including an equestrian portrait of Major-General the Right Hon. Jack Seely on his horse Warrior, one of the inspirations for Michael Morpurgo's War Horse.
Alongside the oils he produced for Lord Beaverbrook, Munnings filled a number of sketchbooks with beautiful, intimate pencil portraits of the Canadian soldiers and French men and women he encountered, many of which are in the collection of the Munnings Art Museum. The present study of a Strathcona Trooper, one of the Canadian mounted regiments, appears to have been torn from one of these sketchbooks. Drawn on 19 March, it was executed only two days before the Germans launched Operation Michael on 21 March, their last major offensive of the war which pushed the allies, and Munnings, back to Amiens. Munnings’ inscription gives the picture added poignancy when one realises that the boy was only 18 and hadn’t been home in 2 years. Hopefully he made it to his 19^th birthday in July.
With the German army's advance across France and Flanders Munnings's time as a war artist seemed to be coming to an end. Ever resourceful, he displayed many of his works at the Canadian representative's headquarters where they were seen by two Colonels from the Canadian Forestry Corps and on the recommendation of Lord Lovat, their commanding officer, he was invited to record their work. Munnings remained in France until the middle of May and in a few months had produced forty-five works which were exhibited in January 1919 as part of the Canadian War Memorials Fund Art Exhibition at the Royal Academy before moving to their permanent home at the Canadian War Museum, in Ottawa. They were widely acclaimed by contemporary critics and probably hastened his election as A.R.A. later that year.
It is not known when the study entered the collection at Harewood but as the 6^th Earl had served with distinction during the First World War, the picture must have had a particular resonance for him.
We are grateful to Lorian Peralta-Ramos, the Curatorial staff at The Munnings Museum and Tristram Lewis for their assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.