Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey fame will be starring with Dominic Cooper in a new film entitled Summer in February. A couple of days ago The Telegraph ran an article which tells us more. The film is based on the bohemian early life of Sir Alfred Munnings and a love triangle that ended in tragedy.
"As the leading equestrian artist of his day, collected by the Royal family and high society, Munnings was the epitome of respectability in the 20th-century establishment.
But a little-known bohemian period during his early career, where he became
embroiled in a tragic love triangle, has, until now, been largely airbrushed
from history.
A new film about Munnings will depict the artist’s turbulent love affair with
his first wife, Florence - played by the Australian actress Emily Browning -
whose relationship with Captain Gilbert Evans, a friend of the couple, led to
her suicide.
Entitled Summer in February, the film will see Dominic Cooper star
as Munnings opposite Dan Stevens, who plays Matthew Crawley in Downton
Abbey, as Evans.
Set between 1912 and 1914, when Munnings was in his early 30s, it depicts his
time as a member of the Newlyn School, an artists’ colony in Cornwall, where he
lived alongside fellow painters Dame Laura Knight and her husband, Harold.
There, Munnings met Florence Carter-Wood, known as “Flossie”, a troubled
young artist 14 years his junior who joined the colony attempting to escape her
upper-class background. She became Munnings’s muse and lover, and is depicted in
his painting, Two Lady Riders Under An Evening Sky, the only portrait of
her that Munnings kept.
The film portrays the love triangle between Florence, Munnings and Evans, a veteran of the Boer War and the manager of the Boskenna Estate in Lamorna, west Cornwall, where the Newlyn colony was located.
Based on Evans’s personal diaries, it depicts both men falling in love with Florence.
Florence and Munnings married in 1912, but the film shows her attempted suicide during their honeymoon, after she realises she has married the wrong man.
Munnings, a miller’s son from Suffolk, is portrayed as a wild and passionate artist who slashes his canvases in artistic rages while Evans is a steady, respectable gentleman who attempts to help Florence overcome her battles with depression.
When Munnings and Florence returned to Cornwall after their wedding, she and Evans embarked on an affair, which she later confessed to her husband. Summer in February depicts his furious reaction and her subsequent suicide in July 1914 by poisoning herself with cyanide.
The film, which is expected to be released this summer, also suggests that Florence was pregnant with Evans’s child when she killed herself and that her marriage to Munnings was never consummated.
Browning, who starred in the recent Hollywood thriller Sucker Punch, said of Florence: “She is genuinely in love with Gilbert but he represents what she is running from. Alfred appears to be everything she thinks she wants. He is free and a little crazy.”
The film has been adapted from a book of the same name, by Jonathan Smith. It also depicts Laura Knight’s unrequited love for Munnings and the jealousy of her husband Harold, who also harboured feelings for Florence.
Munnings never spoke of his first wife after her death and his three volumes of memoirs written in the early 1950s make no mention of their relationship.
In 1920, he married Violet McBride, a renowned equestrienne, with whom he lived until his death in 1959 aged 80, at Castle House in Dedham, Essex, home to the Sir Alfred Munnings Art Museum.
Cecil Hadingham, 74, Munnings’s great-nephew, said: “It was extraordinary that he never mentioned this period and it was never discussed amongst the family. I think he found it so painful that he wanted to cut it out of his life completely.”
James Johnston, the chairman of the Castle House Trust, said: “It will be a fascinating take on a part of his life that has been entirely unexplored. Although he produced some of his finest work during this turbulent time, he never spoke of it or of Florence, and she has been airbrushed from history.”
Jeremy Cowdrey, one of the film’s producers, said: “Munnings became very establishment later in his life, but the film shows his wilder days when he lived rather like a rock-star.”
The film portrays the love triangle between Florence, Munnings and Evans, a veteran of the Boer War and the manager of the Boskenna Estate in Lamorna, west Cornwall, where the Newlyn colony was located.
Based on Evans’s personal diaries, it depicts both men falling in love with Florence.
Florence and Munnings married in 1912, but the film shows her attempted suicide during their honeymoon, after she realises she has married the wrong man.
Munnings, a miller’s son from Suffolk, is portrayed as a wild and passionate artist who slashes his canvases in artistic rages while Evans is a steady, respectable gentleman who attempts to help Florence overcome her battles with depression.
When Munnings and Florence returned to Cornwall after their wedding, she and Evans embarked on an affair, which she later confessed to her husband. Summer in February depicts his furious reaction and her subsequent suicide in July 1914 by poisoning herself with cyanide.
The film, which is expected to be released this summer, also suggests that Florence was pregnant with Evans’s child when she killed herself and that her marriage to Munnings was never consummated.
Browning, who starred in the recent Hollywood thriller Sucker Punch, said of Florence: “She is genuinely in love with Gilbert but he represents what she is running from. Alfred appears to be everything she thinks she wants. He is free and a little crazy.”
The film has been adapted from a book of the same name, by Jonathan Smith. It also depicts Laura Knight’s unrequited love for Munnings and the jealousy of her husband Harold, who also harboured feelings for Florence.
Munnings never spoke of his first wife after her death and his three volumes of memoirs written in the early 1950s make no mention of their relationship.
In 1920, he married Violet McBride, a renowned equestrienne, with whom he lived until his death in 1959 aged 80, at Castle House in Dedham, Essex, home to the Sir Alfred Munnings Art Museum.
Cecil Hadingham, 74, Munnings’s great-nephew, said: “It was extraordinary that he never mentioned this period and it was never discussed amongst the family. I think he found it so painful that he wanted to cut it out of his life completely.”
James Johnston, the chairman of the Castle House Trust, said: “It will be a fascinating take on a part of his life that has been entirely unexplored. Although he produced some of his finest work during this turbulent time, he never spoke of it or of Florence, and she has been airbrushed from history.”
Jeremy Cowdrey, one of the film’s producers, said: “Munnings became very establishment later in his life, but the film shows his wilder days when he lived rather like a rock-star.”
We are offering a 5% discount for all of our P&P Tours, and other full tours including Sense & Sensibility, for any booking made between now and 31st January 2013. This includes the special LADY CATHERINE places where you get to stay in film locations and have all the luxury of being a VIP client.
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