AS a fairly frequent visitor to Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, I also noticed the absence of Munnings' painting of Solario from its long-standing position.

However, my reaction was somewhat different from that of Mr Harold Heys (Letters, January 21).

This painting is an example of Alfred Munnings' later and more commercial style, as opposed to his earlier more painterly manner. Technically, it is excellent, but is painting primarily to please a patron and public, whose knowledge and taste of art did not rise above the photographic.

Munnings was a much sought-after equestrian artist in his later period, working in the main for wealthy patrons, of whom there was no shortage, but it is his earlier works of horse fairs and gypsy gatherings that display his real talent as an artist and I am sure it is these for which he himself would like to be best remembered.

A fine example of this early period hangs in the Harris Museum, Preston, which far outshines the Solario picture and shows the difference between skilled illustration and real painting.

If Mr Heys wanted to soak up the atmosphere of this genre, he should visit this painting and compare the two and he may concur with me in wishing Blackburn had an example of this quality to display, in place of this slick example of Munnings' later style.

NORMAN REDMAYNE, Sarah Street, Darwen.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.