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£1,200

Presentation: Framed
SN: 232
Design for the University of London Students’ Union Mural, circa 1964 Gouache over pencil
33 x 51 cm.; 13 x 20 1/16 in.

Exhibited: Sir Thomas Monnington, Royal Academy, 1977, (54) Thomas Monnington, Fine Art Society, 1997,  no 137.
Literature: Judy Egerton, Sir Thomas Monnington, Royal Academy, 1977, p.13; Paul Liss, Thomas Monnington, Fine Art Society, 1997, pp. 54-55.

In a stepped gesso reverse section Gluck style frame

In 1964 The Edwin Austin Abbey Trust for Mural Painting in Great Britain commissioned two works from Monnington for the University of London Students’ Union. The first of the two designs was executed in situ, in polyvinyl acetate on a panel 8 x 20 ft. (see photograph), following the compostion and colouring of this study.  
The resultant geometric design is very different from the rather florid Scholar Gypsy painted by Gilbert Spencer R.A in 1957, also commission by the Abbey Trust, on the floor below. The Gilbert Spencer mural has remained in situ, but been painted over.  The Monnington mural has suffered a worse fate:it was  removed sometime in the mid 1990's and is assumed to have been destroyed.

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£800

Presentation: Passe-partout
SN: 1048
Red chalk and pencil on tracing paper, squared in pencil for transfer
18 1/2 x 12 in.;47 x 30 cm.

Provenance: Evelyn Monnington.
Literature: Judy Egerton, Sir Thomas Monnington, Royal Academy 1977

Monnington began studies for 'St. Luke's Printing Works', his third Bank of England picture, in 1934. He completed the cartoon in 1936. The finished painting is the same width as the cartoon but a few inches higher. It was completed in October 1937, with the assistance of L. J. Watson, one of his recent students at the Royal College of Art.
The cartoon illustrates Monnington's methods of controlling perspective, learned from Piero della Francesca. The spectator's viewpoint is the top of the cupboard below which parallel lines, graduated and numbered at the side, measure the distance leading in to the picture.
The three men portrayed are, from left to right, W. W. E. Paddick, Labourer; S. B. Chamberlain, General Works Manager; and J. R. Dudin, Supervisor of the Printing Section. The three girls are drawn from models (see no. 24). The downward gaze of the girl handling banknote paper is Madonna-like; but her hands and wrists have been drawn from accurate observation of the deft and practised movements of printing operatives.

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£1,200

Presentation: Framed
SN: 1052
Inscribed
Pencil and brown ink on tracing paper
6 ins. sq. (15 .1 cm sq.)

In a black recedingreceeding frame with gilded knull

This compostion is clearly indebted to Piero della Francesca’s Baptism of Christ (1450s, National Gallery, London).  The National Gallery Baptism had a special significance for Monnington - it was, he later recalled, on first seeing this work  as a young teenager, that he decided his vocation was to be an artist.

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£800

Presentation: Passe-partout
SN: 3368
Coloured pencil and white and black chalk on paper,
18.5 x 15.5cm (25.5 x 23cm framed)


Monnington's studies for his 'Geometric Paintings' (as he preferred to call them) are works which he crafted meticulously. He frequently reworked the same design over and over again before producing a version in tempera. 'I do feel that as President of the R.A. I should show at least one painting there a year .. I take a long time to resolve a painting problem. I take a year to do one painting because I make innumerable studies preparing the way' (Sunday Express, 19 Oct 1969).

Monnington was significantly the first President of the Royal Academy to paint abstracts, and inevitably his work was not always well received:

'The President is indeed a charming man but his work is an embarrassment. I can only recommend it to some linoleum manufacturer.' So wrote Terence Mullaly, reviewing the Royal Academy Summer Show (Daily Telegraph, 28 April 1967)

Unlike his predecessors, Monnington was prepared to throw open to debate questions about contemporary art. 'I happen to paint abstracts, but surely what matters is not whether a work is abstract or representative, but whether it has merit. If those who visit exhibitions - and this applies to artists as well as to the public - would come without preconceptions, would apply to art the elementary standards they apply in other spheres, they might glimpse new horizons. They might ask themselves: Is this work distinguished or is it commonplace? Fresh and original or uninspired, derivative and dull? Is it modest or pretentious?' (Marjorie Bruce-Milne, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 May 1967). At the same time Monnington was keen to defend traditional values. 'You cannot be a revolutionary and kick against the rules unless you learn first what you are kicking against. Some modern art is good, some bad, some indifferent. It might be common, refined or intelligent. You can apply the same judgements to it as you can to traditional works,' (interview with Colin Frame, undated newspaper clipping, 1967).

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£330

Presentation: Passe-partout
SN: 3129
Red and blue ink on lined paper, 3 3/4 x 5 3/4 in. (9.5 x 14.5cm.)
(7 1/4 x 9 1/4 in. (18.5 x 23.5cm.) framed)

Monnington frequently used blue and red ink (or biro) in the post war years.  This still life shows objects on the mantlepiece of the artist's home Leyswood, near Groombridge, Kent.

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£1,000

Presentation: Passe-partout
SN: 3373
Coloured pencil and white and black chalk on paper, 38.5 x 37.5cm (43.5 x 42.5cm framed)

The New Bristol Council House, designed by Vincent Harris, was built in the early 1950s. Monnington was commissioned to paint the ceiling in 1953; it was unveiled in 1956. The ceiling, measuring 95 x 45 feet (over 4000 square feet), is amongst the largest post-war decorative schemes in Europe. Monnington insisted on painting in the Renaissance manner - directly onto wet plaster. The colours were ground and mixed with an emulsion of eggs, chalk and water - Bristol's Clerk of the Works delivered baskets of eggs daily.

'A suggestion by the Bristol city fathers that the subject should be "something connected with the Merchant Adventurers" fell on deaf ears. Monnington determined that his design should instead commemorate those scientific achievements which future Bristolians would associate with the mid-twentieth century, and which he himself had become excited by over the last twenty years: modern nuclear physics; electronics, which had enthralled him first in the shape of radio masts and later in radar equipment; aeronautics, whose laws he had begun to comprehend during the war; and biochemistry, where enlarged photographs of recent research revealed amazing quasi-abstract patterns.' Judy Egerton, Monnington, Royal Academy, 1977, p. 13.

Monnington's design bears similarities to the paintings of the Italian futurist Balla, but is underwritten by his deep admiration for Piero della Francesca, constructed as it is along the lines of the Golden Section. There are also stylistic similarities with the sculptures of Monnington's neighbour, Professor Gerrard. A number of drawings by Monnington for the ceiling are in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Science Museum and Bristol City Art Gallery. 

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£3,200

Presentation: Framed
SN: 4279

Oil on panel
25 x 40 cm

Provenance: from the Artist's Estate

In a polished mahogony square section frame with ribbed gesso inner moulding

The landscape of the Leyswood Estate, near Groombridge, East Sussex,
where Monnington lived from the late 1940s, provided the subject matter for a number of his paintings. John Monnington, the artist’s son, recalls that, as the summer light began to dwindle, his father would wander out with his artist’s materials and paint a rapid impression of the surrounding landscape.
Sometimes these served as studies for fuller compositions, worked up in
the studio. This view is probably of Buckhurst Park, the seat of the Earl and
Countess De La Warr, which adjoined the Leyswood Estate.

We are grateful to John Monnington for assistance.

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Presentation: Passe-partout
SN: 2867
Coloured pencil and white chalk on paper, 15.7 x 15.5cm (20.7 x 20.5cm framed)


Monnington's studies for his 'Geometric Paintings' (as he preferred to call them) are works which he crafted meticulously. He frequently reworked the same design over and over again before producing a version in tempera. 'I do feel that as President of the R.A. I should show at least one painting there a year .. I take a long time to resolve a painting problem. I take a year to do one painting because I make innumerable studies preparing the way' (Sunday Express, 19 Oct 1969).

Monnington was significantly the first President of the Royal Academy to paint abstracts, and inevitably his work was not always well received:

'The President is indeed a charming man but his work is an embarrassment. I can only recommend it to some linoleum manufacturer.' So wrote Terence Mullaly, reviewing the Royal Academy Summer Show (Daily Telegraph, 28 April 1967)

Unlike his predecessors, Monnington was prepared to throw open to debate questions about contemporary art. 'I happen to paint abstracts, but surely what matters is not whether a work is abstract or representative, but whether it has merit. If those who visit exhibitions - and this applies to artists as well as to the public - would come without preconceptions, would apply to art the elementary standards they apply in other spheres, they might glimpse new horizons. They might ask themselves: Is this work distinguished or is it commonplace? Fresh and original or uninspired, derivative and dull? Is it modest or pretentious?' (Marjorie Bruce-Milne, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 May 1967). At the same time Monnington was keen to defend traditional values. 'You cannot be a revolutionary and kick against the rules unless you learn first what you are kicking against. Some modern art is good, some bad, some indifferent. It might be common, refined or intelligent. You can apply the same judgements to it as you can to traditional works,' (interview with Colin Frame, undated newspaper clipping, 1967).

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Presentation: Passe-partout
SN: 3369
Coloured pencil and white and black chalk on paper,
10 x 17.5cm (17 x 24.5cm framed)

Monnington's studies for his 'Geometric Paintings' (as he preferred to call them) are works which he crafted meticulously. He frequently reworked the same design over and over again before producing a version in tempera. 'I do feel that as President of the R.A. I should show at least one painting there a year .. I take a long time to resolve a painting problem. I take a year to do one painting because I make innumerable studies preparing the way' (Sunday Express, 19 Oct 1969).

Monnington was significantly the first President of the Royal Academy to paint abstracts, and inevitably his work was not always well received:

'The President is indeed a charming man but his work is an embarrassment. I can only recommend it to some linoleum manufacturer.' So wrote Terence Mullaly, reviewing the Royal Academy Summer Show (Daily Telegraph, 28 April 1967)

Unlike his predecessors, Monnington was prepared to throw open to debate questions about contemporary art. 'I happen to paint abstracts, but surely what matters is not whether a work is abstract or representative, but whether it has merit. If those who visit exhibitions - and this applies to artists as well as to the public - would come without preconceptions, would apply to art the elementary standards they apply in other spheres, they might glimpse new horizons. They might ask themselves: Is this work distinguished or is it commonplace? Fresh and original or uninspired, derivative and dull? Is it modest or pretentious?' (Marjorie Bruce-Milne, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 May 1967). At the same time Monnington was keen to defend traditional values. 'You cannot be a revolutionary and kick against the rules unless you learn first what you are kicking against. Some modern art is good, some bad, some indifferent. It might be common, refined or intelligent. You can apply the same judgements to it as you can to traditional works,' (interview with Colin Frame, undated newspaper clipping, 1967).

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Presentation: Passe-partout
SN: 3371
Coloured pencil and black and white chalk on paper, 24 x 24cm (29 x 29cm framed)

In a gilded square section frame mounted within a glazed gessoed shadow box with a matching gilded outer moulding.

Monnington's studies for his 'Geometric Paintings' (as he preferred to call them) are works which he crafted meticulously. He frequently reworked the same design over and over again before producing a version in tempera. 'I do feel that as President of the R.A. I should show at least one painting there a year .. I take a long time to resolve a painting problem. I take a year to do one painting because I make innumerable studies preparing the way' (Sunday Express, 19 Oct 1969).

Monnington was significantly the first President of the Royal Academy to paint abstracts, and inevitably his work was not always well received:

'The President is indeed a charming man but his work is an embarrassment. I can only recommend it to some linoleum manufacturer.' So wrote Terence Mullaly, reviewing the Royal Academy Summer Show (Daily Telegraph, 28 April 1967)

Unlike his predecessors, Monnington was prepared to throw open to debate questions about contemporary art. 'I happen to paint abstracts, but surely what matters is not whether a work is abstract or representative, but whether it has merit. If those who visit exhibitions - and this applies to artists as well as to the public - would come without preconceptions, would apply to art the elementary standards they apply in other spheres, they might glimpse new horizons. They might ask themselves: Is this work distinguished or is it commonplace? Fresh and original or uninspired, derivative and dull? Is it modest or pretentious?' (Marjorie Bruce-Milne, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 May 1967). At the same time Monnington was keen to defend traditional values. 'You cannot be a revolutionary and kick against the rules unless you learn first what you are kicking against. Some modern art is good, some bad, some indifferent. It might be common, refined or intelligent. You can apply the same judgements to it as you can to traditional works,' (interview with Colin Frame, undated newspaper clipping, 1967).

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Presentation: Framed
SN: 1526
Oil on canvas
48 x 85 ins. (122 x 216cm)

Provenance: The British School at Rome, Lowther Gardens, London; Sotheby's, London 14th October 1987, lot 118, purchased by Abbot and Holder; Alan and Susanna Powers

Exhibited: Exhibition of works submitted in the final competitions for the Rome Scholarship of 1922, Royal Academy, February 1923; International Exhibition of Modern and Decorative Industrial Art, Paris, April-October 1925, British Section, Grand Palais (309)

Literature: Illustrated London News, loth March 1923, vol.162, p.366, (Reproduced)

Winter was Monnington's winning submission for the 1922 British School at Rome Scholarship in Decorative Painting. The landscape is based on studies looking towards Clerebury Rings near Salisbury, undertaken during visits in 1921 to the artist's cousin Dr. R. C. Monnington. In a review in the Observer, (22 February 1923), P. C. Konody praised Monnington's painting for being steeped in the best traditions of the Italian Renaissance. His colour is dull, but there is a marked sense of style in his design.

A link with the Italian Renaissance can be demonstrated more specifically in relation to the work of Piero della Francesca: the young peasant leaning with both hands on a spade is a possible echo from the Discovery and Proving of the True Cross (San Francesco, Arezzo). The man sitting on a rock in the middle of the composition appears to be based on the figure of St.. Joseph (in reverse) in Piero della Francesca's Adoration. I am grateful to Professor Luciano Chelles for these observations.
Lent by Sacha Llewellyn and Paul Liss

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Presentation: Passe-partout
SN: 1026
Pencil, wax crayon and watercolour on tracing paper
50.5 x 38.5 cm.; 19 7/8 x 15 1/8 in.

Provenance:: Evelyn Monnington, thence by descent.
Exhibited: Thomas Monnington, Fine Art Society, 1997, no. 142
Literature: Judy Egerton, Sir Thomas Monnington, Royal Academy, 1977; Paul Liss, Thomas Monnington, Fine Art Society, 1997, pp. 55

Monnington was approached by his follow Trustees in 1966 to submit some design proposals for the redecoration of the main staircase. His proposal, which was not adopted, subdivided the wall surface into painted panels with two alternative decorative schemes: one using ornament related to the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities; the other a modern abstract design. It appears that the statue of Shakespeare by Roubillac, shown in outline, was one of the objects considered for display on the staircase.

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Presentation: Framed
SN: 1043
Pencil and pen and ink on tracing paper
inscribed and titled by the artist's son, John.
5 1/8 x 6 1/4 in.; (13 x 16 cms.)

In a square section gilded oak frame with broad oak inner slip.

Monnington was passionate about aircraft - by the time he applied to become an official War Artist he had completed over 600 hours of flying time, having worked during the early part of the war in the Design Team of the Directorate of Camouflage.  Whilst posted at the Brooklands race track he met Barnes Wallis – inventor of the Wellington Bomber and the bouncing bomb – who asked Monnington to apply his talent to improving the appearance of a heavy bomber which was being developed at the time, (two designs for which are in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum). Much in the same vien the Lysander shown here is a developmental design – Monnington’s view of what an enhanced Lysander might look like.  Lydansers were used in the early part of the war for dropping SIS officers into France, the very long undercarriage and wide wheel base allowing for landing  in fields at speeds as slow as 40 mph.   The Royal Air Force (Handbook) by Eric Sargeant, circa 1941, descirbes The Lysander as follows: a very fine aeroplane which has performed many diverse operations during this war. Among its duties are reconnaissance, artillary spotting, delivery of food and ammunition, etc. to beleaguered troops, message-dropping and picking-up, light boming etc.  Monnington's enhanced design shows elongated wings and a wider wheel base.

We are grateful to John Monnington for assistance.

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Presentation: Framed
SN: 1532
Pen and ink and chalk on tracing paper
22 x 16 cm

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Presentation: Passe-partout
SN: 2870
Pen and pencil on paper,
10.3 x 18.3cm (15.3 x 23.3cm framed)

Although never worked into a major painting numerous studies exist for The Postman . In these the basic composition remains the same: postman Setford enters from the right; the artist, his wife Evelyn, and son John (leaning on a gun) stand centre left, by the large cherry tree (cat. no. 120). Emerging from the left are Monnington’s neighbours, the sculptor A.H.Gerrard and his wife, the painter, Kathleen Leigh-Pemberton, (whose studio is seen behind). The other, distant figures, are Mr. and Mrs Young, emerging from their home in the Bothy

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Presentation: Passe-partout
SN: 3370
Coloured pencil and black and white chalk on tracing paper,
17 x 19.8cm (22 x 24.8cm framed)


Monnington's studies for his 'Geometric Paintings' (as he preferred to call them) are works which he crafted meticulously. He frequently reworked the same design over and over again before producing a version in tempera. 'I do feel that as President of the R.A. I should show at least one painting there a year .. I take a long time to resolve a painting problem. I take a year to do one painting because I make innumerable studies preparing the way' (Sunday Express, 19 Oct 1969).

Monnington was significantly the first President of the Royal Academy to paint abstracts, and inevitably his work was not always well received:

'The President is indeed a charming man but his work is an embarrassment. I can only recommend it to some linoleum manufacturer.' So wrote Terence Mullaly, reviewing the Royal Academy Summer Show (Daily Telegraph, 28 April 1967)

Unlike his predecessors, Monnington was prepared to throw open to debate questions about contemporary art. 'I happen to paint abstracts, but surely what matters is not whether a work is abstract or representative, but whether it has merit. If those who visit exhibitions - and this applies to artists as well as to the public - would come without preconceptions, would apply to art the elementary standards they apply in other spheres, they might glimpse new horizons. They might ask themselves: Is this work distinguished or is it commonplace? Fresh and original or uninspired, derivative and dull? Is it modest or pretentious?' (Marjorie Bruce-Milne, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 May 1967). At the same time Monnington was keen to defend traditional values. 'You cannot be a revolutionary and kick against the rules unless you learn first what you are kicking against. Some modern art is good, some bad, some indifferent. It might be common, refined or intelligent. You can apply the same judgements to it as you can to traditional works,' (interview with Colin Frame, undated newspaper clipping, 1967).
 

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Presentation: Passe-partout
SN: 3377
Coloured pencil and white chalk on paper, 19 x 19cm (24 x 24cm framed)

In a gilded square section frame mounted within a glazed gessoed shadow box with a matching gilded outer moulding.

Monnington's studies for his 'Geometric Paintings' (as he preferred to call them) are works which he crafted meticulously. He frequently reworked the same design over and over again before producing a version in tempera. 'I do feel that as President of the R.A. I should show at least one painting there a year .. I take a long time to resolve a painting problem. I take a year to do one painting because I make innumerable studies preparing the way' (Sunday Express, 19 Oct 1969).

Monnington was significantly the first President of the Royal Academy to paint abstracts, and inevitably his work was not always well received:

'The President is indeed a charming man but his work is an embarrassment. I can only recommend it to some linoleum manufacturer.' So wrote Terence Mullaly, reviewing the Royal Academy Summer Show (Daily Telegraph, 28 April 1967)

Unlike his predecessors, Monnington was prepared to throw open to debate questions about contemporary art. 'I happen to paint abstracts, but surely what matters is not whether a work is abstract or representative, but whether it has merit. If those who visit exhibitions - and this applies to artists as well as to the public - would come without preconceptions, would apply to art the elementary standards they apply in other spheres, they might glimpse new horizons. They might ask themselves: Is this work distinguished or is it commonplace? Fresh and original or uninspired, derivative and dull? Is it modest or pretentious?' (Marjorie Bruce-Milne, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 May 1967). At the same time Monnington was keen to defend traditional values. 'You cannot be a revolutionary and kick against the rules unless you learn first what you are kicking against. Some modern art is good, some bad, some indifferent. It might be common, refined or intelligent. You can apply the same judgements to it as you can to traditional works,' (interview with Colin Frame, undated newspaper clipping, 1967).

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Presentation: Framed
SN: 3653
Chalk on tracing paper
27.5 21.5 cm

Provenance: Lady Monnington; John Monnington
Literature: Paul Liss, Thomas Monnington, The Fine Art Society 1997, p. 57

This work was inspired by a Clematis Montana growing at Leyswood. My interest in abstract is in trying to do something more than imitate, Monnington explained in an interview for the Church Times, (30 December 1966): I think it is possible that, through a more abstract approach, one can get nearer to the underlying nature of reality. A still life entitled Clematis - exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1959 (34) - was possibly the point of departure for this more abstract interpretation. This work is closely related to the ceiling of the Mary Harris Memorial Chapel in its colour and construction. Bristol and Exeter were undoubtedly instrumental in Monningtons pursuit of ‘Geometric’ paintings (a term he preferred to Abstracts). When the Tate purchased Monnington’s Square Design (1967) he spoke of his abstract paintings as “direct descendants from my ceiling painting in the Council House, Bristol, which was my first departure from purely representational painting. Since them I have been increasingly interested in the subdivisions of surface areas contained in equilateral rectangels (squares) and rectangles derived from square roots. These two-dimensional mathematical relationships suggest to me dimensions in depth, and provide a discipline which at the present time I find as necessary and interesting as that imposed previously in representational painting... You can cut out the blurb if you wish, but I was trying for my own edification to put into words what I think I have been trying to do in the last ten years”, (letter of 12th June 1968)