The Strathcona Horse Lines in France
- Pencil on paper
- 6.25 x 10.25 in
- Sir Alfred J. Munnings
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Lord Beaverbrook started the Canadian War Memorials Fund to dispatch artists to document Canadian soldiers during war whose achievements he thought had been overlooked. As Munnings noted, he was the official artist to paint the Canadian Cavalry Brigade and Canadian Forestry Corps. The Canadian Cavalry Brigade comprised several different regiments, one of which was Lord Strathcona‰Ûªs Horse. Munnings notes on page 306 in volume I of his autobiography An Artist‰Ûªs Life, ‰ÛÏTaxing my memory, I recall that we arrived at a place called Ennemain, which existed only in mounds and rubble.‰Û He goes on to say on page 307, ‰ÛÏOn that particular morning, with the band playing, I was finishing a picture of the horses as they stood with their heads out, basking in the sun, between tattered camouflage hanging over roughly-built rows of stabling. I had been patient with each head, with eyes blinking in the sun, and was working on the sixth, which might have been somewhere to the right of the middle of the picture, when suddenly something was happening ‰ÛÓ men were running; a sergeant came along, saying: ‰Û÷Hurry up, lads! Saddle up and stand to!‰Ûª The order went along the lines, and soon those patient horses were saddled up in full marching order, mounted, and the whole brigade rode away.‰Û The present sketch is a study for the finished painting mentioned above and referenced in Munnings‰Ûª inscription on the work. The final work can be seen on page 288 of An Artist‰Ûªs Life and today is in the collection of the Canadian War Museum.