DEDHAM.- The Munnings Art Museum will celebrate its 65th anniversary with an exhibition of paintings that have rarely, if ever, been seen in public before.

The Munnings Art Museum will celebrate the 65th anniversary of Castle House being open to the public with a very special exhibition of pictures by Sir Alfred Munnings PRA (1878-1959).

The works in Pictures from Private Collections have been especially loaned from private collections and will be shown alongside new displays charting the history of the Museum; from Lady Munnings’ (1885-1971) original ‘shrine’ to her late husband, through to the founding of the Castle House Trust and subsequent professionalisation of the Museum into the position it occupies today, as the world centre of knowledge and research into Munnings’ life and artistic legacy.

A complementary exhibition – The Influence of John Constable - will show the influence of John Constable (1776-1837) on Munnings, with exquisite sky studies and what is believed to be a Constable sketchbook, gifted by Violet to Munnings in the 1950’s. The significance of this, was that she passionately believed that Sir Alfred was the reincarnation of Constable.

Both are now open, until 25 October 2026.

However, the Museum’s Director Jenny Hand hopes that the new exhibitions will not recreate the chaotic scenes witnessed on 4th June 1961, when Violet first threw open the doors of Castle House, the home she had shared with Munnings since 1919.

Pandemonium ensued. A reported crowd of 600 people had arrived, with the House and surrounding roads overwhelmed with curious visitors eager to see the place where so many of the nation’s most popular and iconic paintings had been created, whilst also wanting to enjoy insights into the Munnings’ private life.

Violet did her best to cope in the circumstances but eventually had to call police from nearby Colchester for assistance with directing the increasing traffic, while such was the crush inside Castle House, that she had to physically fend people away from her. Indeed, a newspaper article about the dramatic opening told its readers that a ‘Triumphant Lady Munnings emerged from the fray’ with Violet reported to have said: “I had the shock of my life when I saw all those people queuing. I still haven’t got over it.”

The article went on to say: ‘She had intended to be the guide and give the commentary: “Guide?” she snorted. “I got lost in the crowd. Commentary? I couldn’t make myself heard.” She then added: “Several times I was trapped …I got pushed against the wall and had to defend myself with a chair.”

More recently, Hand and her highly knowledgeable team have also begun to compile the definitive Munnings catalogue. She says: “We have been working for the last eight years on an index of paintings in public and private collections across the world which we want to publish in the next few years as we approach the 150th anniversary of Munnings’ birth.” Remarkably, despite the artist’s position as President of the Royal Academy between 1944-1949, huge fame and lasting popularity across the globe, a catalogue raisonné – a complete and authoritative listing of all his works - has never been completed and published.

In celebration of Lady Munnings - wife, model and founder of the Museum - on Saturday 30 May, there will be a side saddle demonstration and recreation of Violet’s truly iconic pose for one of Munnings’ most famous and instantly recognisable paintings, My Wife, My Horse and Myself (c.1935).

As much as she was an accomplished rider, with a passion that she shared with her husband for horses, Violet was also renowned for her love of dogs. Her favourite pooch, a Pekinese called Black Knight, became something of a celebrity in his own right, due to her devotion to him. He accompanied her to exhibition openings, horse shows and race meetings. Hidden in a velvet evening bag, Black Knight was surreptitiously taken to formal dinners and grand receptions. When the press eventually discovered him and a photo of him at Chequers (the Prime Minister’s country residence) subsequently made the papers, the public became fascinated by Violet’s characterful dog. So much so, that a cuddly toy replica of Black Knight was produced, one of which Lady Munnings was wont to carry under arm after he died. However, this was on the odd occasion when she was not carrying around the real dog, whom she had stuffed after his death.

In tribute to Black Knight and Violet’s remarkable bond with him, any visitor arriving at Castle House on 5 and 6 June carrying a cuddly toy dog will be given entry for the equivalent of the 1961 admission price of ‘half a crown’, or just £4 in today’s money.

Inside the Munnings’ beautiful house in picturesque Dedham, visitors will not only be able to see the exhibition of some of Sir Alfred’s finest works loaned from private collections but another 150 paintings from the museum’s own collection, the only permanent retrospective of his work anywhere in the world. These range from charming boyhood sketches to his finest equestrian portraits and genre defining scenes of horseracing.

Commenting on the new exhibition, Jenny Hand says: “They are an amazing collection, which covers all aspects of Munnings’ career and subject matter, through to his approaches to painting. From early pictures of village models, side saddle riders, landscapes from Norfolk and Exmoor, hunting, a lovely painted sketch of one of his horses with Castle House in the background, plus an early watercolour, which we believe may have been an early model or girlfriend of his during the formative stages of his career while working in Norwich.”

She adds: “The exhibition focusses on the Grey Horse, a large picture that Munnings started in Cornwall in 1913, using Ned Osborne, a farm hand as his model, but was finished at Castle House in 1924 and then exhibited at the Royal Academy. We also have two other paintings featuring the Grey Horse and Ned, which will be hung nearby. Both have come from other collectors in other parts of the country and so this is likely to be the very first time they have all been exhibited together.”