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£8,000

Presentation: Framed
SN: 114
Inscribed on the reverse, 'working study'
Tempera over pencil on a gesso ground, 30 X 76 ins. (76.2 X 193 cms.)

In a narrow period black painted wedge shaped frame.

Provenance: Lady Monnington, thence by descent.
Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1956, Sir Thomas Monnington; Fine Art Society, 1997 (129).
Literature: Judy Egerton, Sir Thomas Monnington, Royal Academy, 1977, p.13.; Paul Liss, Thomas Monnington, Fine Art Society, 1997, pp. 21-2.

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.  This important preparatory tempera study is one of two made by Monnington, the second of which is in a private collection (London).

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£7,500

Presentation: Framed
SN: 188
Acrylic on boad, 51 3/16 x 36 1/4 in. (130 x 92 cm.)
Provenance: Lady Monnington; John Monnington
Exhibited: Paul Liss, Thomas Monnington, The Fine Art Society 1997, no. 150.
Literature: Paul Liss, Thomas Monnington, The Fine Art Society 1997, p. 57

In a square section modern oak tray frame, stained dark brown.

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)

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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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£2,500

Presentation: Framed
SN: 502

Inscribed by John Monnington on reverse; oil on canvas, 14 × 18 in. (35.5 × 45.7 cm.)
Provenance: the artist’s son, James

In a modern gilded D-section reeded frame

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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£1,800

Presentation: Framed
SN: 503

Charcoal over intersecting diagonals in red wax crayon, sight size 21½ × 17½ in.(54.6 × 44.5 cm.), overall size 24 × 20 in. (61 × 50.8 cm.)
Literature: Sir Thomas Monnington, exh. cat.. The Fine Art Society, London, 1997, p. 56

Monnington began designs for fourteen Stations of the Cross for St George’s Parish Church, Brede, Sussex, in 1959; he exhibited studies for Jesus Meets his Mother and Jesus Falls for the First Time at the Royal Academy that year.The works were commissioned by the Rector of Brede, the Revd Percy Hill, with the support of Bishop George Bell, who enthusiastically endorsed Hill’s choice: ‘If you could get Monnington it would be wonderful.’ Monnington accepted thecommission at a cost of £100 for each station. He expressed a preference to execute the works as frescoes but, since the surface of the ancient walls did not allow this, painted them instead in tempera on panel.The work took several years to complete, and Monnington became deeply moved by the subject matter. The last four or five stations are markedly different in style from the earlier ones, as Monnington was increasingly drawn towards abstraction. Strong stylistic parallels can be made between Monnington’s Stations and Paul Nash’s twelve wood-cuts for Genesis (Nonesuch Press, London, 1924). 

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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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£6,500

Presentation: Framed
SN: 1176
oil on board 43.7 x 122 cm.; 17 1/4x 48 in. The chapel was designed by Vincent Harris R.A. (architect of the Bristol Council House) in memory of his mother. He commissioned Monnington to paint the 112 x 28ft ceiling in 1956. Monnington completed his designs during 1956 and his assistants Scott Medd and W.B.(Peter) Lowe took 11 months to execute it. Lowe recalls: “Tom maintained that it was difficult to draw angels in the twentieth century, and was comforted by the enduring qualities of geometry and light. The design, based on simple geometry, was visualised as overlapping webs of transparent light extending into and partly veiling the mysteries of space”. Provenance: Evelyn Monnington Exhibited: The Fine Art Society, 1997, no. 134; The British School at Rome, 1997; Exeter Museum and Art Gallery.

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£3,800

Presentation: Framed
SN: 1346
Tempera on board
Provenance: James Monnington, the artists son
Literature: Sir Thomas Monnington, The Fine Art Society, 1997, p.56

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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: Framed
SN: 585
Acrylic on board,
17 × 13 in. (43.2 × 33 cm.)

Exhibited: Sir Thomas Monnington,The Fine Art Society, 1997 (no. 140)
Literature: Paul Liss, Thomas Monnington:The British School at Rome, 1997, repr. p. 54.

In a white gesso shadow box frame with museum glass

‘It has been a failing all my life that I take a long time to resolve a painting problem. I take a year to do one painting because I make innumerablestudies preparing the way … I am now preparing something for the summer exhibition – I expect that I will use that as a basis for the mural’ (interview in the Sunday Express, 1969).

The mural to which Monnington refers, and for which this painting is a study, was commissioned by the Edwin Austin Abbey Trust for Mural Painting in Great Britain, and completed and installed in the early 1970s. It was later removed from the Students’ Union and is assumed to have been destroyed.

Monnington was the first President of the Royal Academy to encourage the exhibition of abstract works at the academy, including his own. Although in 1967 the Chantrey Bequest acquired Square Design 1966 for the Tate Gallery, his significant contribution to post-war art in Britain has since been largely ignored.

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