Lady Violet Munnings (by May 6, 1957, according to a label on the reverse)
Mr. and Mrs. William Coxe Wright, Philadelphia (by 1962)
By descent from the above by circa 1972

San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Paintings by A.J. Munnings, April 11 - September 9, 1962, no. 1 (lent by Mr. and Mrs. William Coxe Wright)

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is painted on two panels joined vertically between the horse in the center and the horse on the left side. The panel has been mounted onto another piece of wood, which has been cradled in turn. This method of creating a picture is not uncommon with this artist, and it is certainly very well presented as a result of this support. There has been a small amount of retouching along the vertical join and a few spots in the center of the bottom edge, but there do not appear to be any restorations within the remainder of the picture. This fully realized work is in beautiful condition.
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From his early childhood, Munnings had loved both horses (owning thirty-four during his lifetime) and the open air.  The two passions fueled an oeuvre of masterworks of animal, rider, and the environment depicted in every season, from the heat, color and crowds of summer’s races to the hushed, subtle shades of the snowy stable yard depicted in the present work.  Munnings painted winter exercises as early as 1920 in the fields around his home in Dedham and through World War II, when he changed the setting to Newmarket Heath. A cold morning was no excuse for animal, groom, or artist to remain indoors, and in the present work, Munnings employed his characteristically bold use of brush and keen eye for color to record the frieze-like arrangement of horses dutifully led along a narrow path through snow reflecting the sun’s warming glow and the icy blue sky.  Munnings vividly described such a scene in his memoirs: “I look back on those days when, as I worked in the studio or paddock, I could hear the… horses in rugs with red binding and the letters A. J. M. in red on the corners... [When] there was snow I would go out of the studio door to watch them…. More than once did I run back to the studio with a helper to get out my things for painting, and when the string came along I halted them in the light I wanted and began — first placing them on the canvas, and then going on with a pair, whilst the rest moving until their turn came to be painted” (Sir Alfred Munnings, The Second Burst, London, 1851, p. 189-90).  In the present work, the tell-tale monograms on the horses’ blankets suggest they were the artist’s own, the composition seeming to have a special place in the artist and wife Violet Munnings’ own collection through at least 1957 as evidenced by a card still affixed to the reverse.

Though depicting a subject very personal to him, Munnings' work became widely popular in the United States from the 1950s, largely due to the promotional efforts of of E. J. Rousuck, first as Director of Scott & Fowles and later in association with Wildenstein and Co.  Through a number or exhibitions Rousuck helped increase Munnings' visibility to significant American patrons, including Mr. and Mrs. William Coxe Wright, who acquired the present work in the early 1960s.  Many of the Coxe Wright paintings became the foundation of the Munnings collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the National Museum of Racing at Saratoga Springs, New York (Joseph Baillio, “Munnings in America,” Alfred J. Munnings, Images of the Turf and Field, A Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Jockey Club Research Foundation, exh. cat., New York, Wildenstein, 1983, n.p.). Morning Exercise is one of the examples that descended through the family, which equally appreciated both Munnings&ꦯrsquo; e⭕xpressive, personal works and the country life.