Munnings Art Museum

The Munnings Art Museum is at Castle House, the former home and working studio of Sir Alfred Munnings (1878-1959). Munnings described this elegant Tudor and Georgian building as "the house of my dreams" and it nestles in the tranquil Dedham Vale on the borders of Essex and Suffolk.

Following Alfred Munnings death in 1959 Castle House was opened as an art museum by his widow, Violet. A changing selection of 250 paintings from the museum's significant collection is hung thematically throughout the eight rooms. Furniture and personal effects of Alfred and Violet remain in situ making Castle House feel like the home it was.

Munnings was born the son of a Suffolk miller and rose to become President of the Royal Academy of Arts. After taking night classes at Norwich School of Art as a teenager he soon began to produce pictures of horses and country life which found favour with early buyers and patrons. The loss of sight in his right eye just before his 21st birthday did not deter his drive to paint from nature and following widespread acclaim for his paintings of the Canadian Cavalry during the First World War he was never short of commissions to paint patrons and their horses. It is these, still popular, paintings which make Munnings renown the world over.