Film review: Summer in February: as vivid as a Munnings masterpiece

We like our artists to be larger than life and preferably bohemian, even if nowadays we’ve had to accept that the ones we hear about are more likely to live in a castle than a garret. Sir Alfred Munnings (1878–1959) began life as an artist in true bohemian style, carousing with gypsies and horse-trainers, living rough and constantly on the road, painting at full-stretch. On form, he was a superb painter of horses and English country life, and although he is denigrated as a reactionary by the current art establishment, his paintings still sell for large sums. He ended up covered in honours as President of the Royal Academy, but remained a controversial figure, publicly damning modern art in a live broadcast from the RA banquet in 1949. This film is based on a little-known episode from his early life, when he lived at Lamorna in Cornwall, with a group of friends and models who included the painters Laura Knight and her husband Harold.