{"id":616831,"date":"2025-12-06T23:11:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T23:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/616831\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T23:11:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T23:11:34","slug":"alfred-munnings-painting-of-tombland-purchased-for-20000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/616831\/","title":{"rendered":"Alfred Munnings painting of Tombland purchased for \u00a320,000"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  Alfred Munnings&#8217; Tombland Fair has been purchased from auction by the Norfolk Museums Service.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  It will go on show at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, which overlooks the road scene shown in the painting, in spring next year.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>A close up of Sir Alfred Munnings&#8217; Tombland Fair, Tennants Auctioneers, North Yorkshire (Image: Tennants Auctioneers, North Yorkshire)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eveningnews24.co.uk\/news\/25663134.thousands-petition-banks-bid-stop-pigeons-nesting-roof\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>READ MORE: Thousands petition against bank&#8217;s bid to stop pigeons nesting on its roof<\/strong><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr Munnings&#8217;, the artist who lived between 1887 and 1959, grew up in the Waveney Valley.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  At the age of 14, he left school to start an apprenticeship with Page Brothers, a printers in Norwich, while taking evening classes at Norwich School of Art.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  One of his favourite subjects to paint was the traveller community, who ran travelling fairs in the area.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Tombland Fair offers a look into domestic life of the community, with a meal being prepared in front of the steps of parked caravans.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The painting is based on the actual Tombland Fair, which was held in the area at the base of Castle Hill.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>Tombland Fair in 1907. Although it had moved across to the Market Place, it was still called Tombland (Image: Newsquest Library)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eveningnews24.co.uk\/news\/25664160.shop-owners-celebrate-fourth-birthday-offering-customer-discounts\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>READ MORE: Shop owners celebrate fourth birthday by offering customer discounts<\/strong><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  It is believed Mr Munnings&#8217; would have painted the scene within sight of Norwich Castle.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The painting was purchased with the help of Arts Council England and V&amp;A Purchase Grant Fund, the Art Fund, the Ivy Child Trust and Friends of the Norwich Museum.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A number of councillors also donated to the acquisition, including Andrew Jamieson, Ian Mackie, John Ward and Tony White.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Cllr Ian Mackie said: &#8220;When I read about the painting coming up for sale in the Norwich Evening News, I was very keen to support it coming back to Norwich where Munnings&#8217; has so many of his formative experiences.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Francesca Vanke, senior curator and keeper of art at Norwich Museums, said: &#8220;We believe Tombland Fair has never been exhibited in public before, so this is a wonderful opportunity to bring a work painted within a stone&#8217;s throw of the Castle back to Norwich.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;We&#8217;re very grateful to our funders at both national and local level who made this possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alfred Munnings&#8217; Tombland Fair has been purchased from auction by the Norfolk Museums Service. It will go on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,4022,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-616831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115675154534362250","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}