News : Last minute loan for new exhibition

Florence Carter-Wood by Alfred Munnings.
We are delighted to have secured a last minute loan of this rare portrait of Sir Alfred Munnings first wife Florence for the forth coming exhibition

©Estate of Sir Alfred Munnings 2022
Sir Alfred Munnings (1878-1959) A Life of his Own
Osborne Studio Gallery 
26th April - 14th May
National Horseracing Museum
24th May - 12th June
 
Florence Carter-Wood and Alfred Munnings met  in Cornwall. Florence was an art student in Stanhope Forbes art school. She joined the Lamorna community of artists which included Munnings, Laura and Harold Knight

From the moment she entered the Knight’s circle, Carter-Wood, known as ‘Blote’, was a favourite model for both Harold and Laura Knight. She and Laura  posed for Harold’s Afternoon Tea, 1910 (Private Collection), and among other works, she re-appears prominently in Laura’s The Flower, 1912 (Private Collection). Florence’s quiet beauty was also irresistible to Sir Alfred Munnings, with whom she shared a love of riding. She proved ideal as a model for his equestrian paintings. This painting by Munnings  with its dappled sunlight, is a stunning  rendering of the beautiful young art student in happy times.

Their relationship was a fraught and complicated. Florence suffered from depression and speculation has it that she had a love affair shortly after her marriage in 1912. The stress of these relationships contributed to her tragic suicide in 1914.

Munnings, never spoke of Florence after her death. She is not mentioned in his three-volume autobiography
The story of this sad period in Munnings life is told in the film and novel Summer in February.
Find out more