What did Alfred Munnings blue plaque do at 96 Chelsea Park Gardens?

The Story

This elegant Chelsea residence served as Sir Alfred Munnings's London base during the height of his artistic career, where he lived and worked for nearly four decades from 1920 to 1959. It was from this home that Munnings would make his daily journeys to the Royal Academy, first as a prominent member and later as its controversial President from 1944 to 1949. Though his heart remained in the countryside where he painted his celebrated equestrian scenes, 96 Chelsea Park Gardens provided the perfect London address for entertaining the social elite who commissioned his portraits, and it was in the studio here that he would often conduct preliminary sketches of his wealthy patrons before completing their final paintings at his rural estate in Dedham Vale.