Two Busvines and a Cutaway forms part of a series of conversation pieces painted by Munnings on the theme of hunting. The others include Why weren’t you out Yesterday? (Private Collection) and Where did you Jump the Brook? (Private Collection). Painted in the 1930s the pictures appear to be the epitome of elegance and refinement and yet they also reveal Munnings’s humorous side. Along with his later work, Who’s the Lady? (also in the Moran Collection), the subjects were inspired by the satirical novels of one of Munnings’s favourite authors, Robert Smith Surtees (1805-1864). Surtees was a keen horseman, and an even keener observer of character, who captured the foibles and mannerisms of the hunt and those connected to it. Munnings devoted several pages of his memoirs to his love of Surtees: ‘From the day when I opened the pages of Surtees, the horse-and-rider side of me took on an entirely new and lively growth. Books open our eyes – even more than pictures – to the surrounding world…’ (A.J. Munnings, The Finish, London, 1952, p. 314.)

An avid huntsman himself Munnings held strong views on the sartorial choices of his fellow horsemen and women, in particular the women. He believed that ‘a good figure in a well-cut habit is the essence of grace and beauty’ (op. cit., p. 27). In his eyes for a woman to truly achieve that elegance she should be dressed in a busvine. These were the side-saddle riding habits made by Busvines of Brook Street, a London firm of tailors founded in 1871 and specialising in riding attire until their closure in 1951. The cutaway of the title refers to the man’s coat - cut away at the front to reveal his breeches and yellow waistcoat.

We are grateful to Lorian Peralta-Ramos, Tristram Lewis and the Curatorial staff at The Munnings Museum for their assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
This work will be included in Tradition and Modernity: the Works of Sir Alfred Munnings by Lorian Peralta-Ramos to be published in 2022.