Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/311

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Munnu
305
Munro


was named after his godfather, Paul Sandby [q. v.], who gave him his first instructions in water-colour painting. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1798, sending some views in the Isle of Wight, and was subsequently a frequent contributor of topographical drawings to that and other exhibitions. He was elected an associate exhibitor of the old Society of Painters in Water-colours in 1806, and was for some years a contributor to their exhibitions. He was an intimate friend of John Sell Cotman [q. v.], and they made several sketching tours together at home and abroad. He drew some of the views in Britton's ‘Beauties of England and Wales.’ Munn's drawings are delicately and carefully executed, usually in pale and thin colours, resembling the tinted drawings of the early school of water-colour painting. There are examples in the South Kensington Museum and the print room, British Museum. Munn painted little after 1832, when he devoted himself chiefly to music. He married Cecilia, daughter of Captain Timothy Essex, but died without issue at Margate on 17 Feb. 1845.

[Roget's Hist. of the Old Society of Painters in Water Colours; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; information from the Rev. C. J. Rowland Berkeley and Major-general Emeric Berkeley.]

L. C.

MUNNU, Saint (d. 634). [See Fintan.]

MUNRO. [See also Monro.]

MUNRO, ALEXANDER (1825–1871), sculptor, born in 1825, was son of a stonemason in Sutherlandshire. His artistic abilities were discovered by the Duchess of Sutherland, the wife of the second duke, who assisted him in his art and general education [cf. Leveson-Gower, Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana]. Among the works which he executed for her were ‘The Four Seasons’ on the terrace at Cliveden. Munro came to London in 1848, and was employed for some time on the stone carving for the now Houses of Parliament. He exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in 1849, sending two busts, and was a regular annual contributor during the remainder of his life. His main work was portrait-sculpture, especially in relief, though he occasionally executed subject groups, such as ‘Paolo e Francesea’ (Royal Academy, 1852), ‘Undine’ (Royal Academy, 1858), and the statue of a nymph, which forms the drinking fountain erected by the Marquis of Lansdowne in Berkeley Square. Among his larger works were a statue of Queen Mary for the Houses of Parliament, a colossal statue of James Watt for Birmingham, and a colossal bust of Sir Robert Peel for the memorial at oldham. Among the many notable people of whom he exhibited portrait-busts or medallions at the Royal Academy were Lady Constance Grosvenor (1853), Sir John Millais, Lady Alwyne Compton, and Baron Bunsen (1854), Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone (1855), Adelaide Ristori 1858), Mrs. George Murray Smith (1859), William Hunt, the watercolour painter (1862), Sir James Stephen (1866), and the Duchess of Vallombrosa (1869). All Munro's work was sketchy and wanting in strength, but full of refinement and true feeling. He was by nature small and delicate, and before reaching middle age was attacked by lung disease, which slowly undermined his constitution. He lived for some time at 152 Buckingham Palace Road; but being compelled to reside most of the year at Cannes, he built himself a house and studio there, where he continued to work at his profession till his death, on 1 Jan. 1871.

Munro married a daughter of Robert Carruthers [q. v.], editor of the ‘Inverness Courier.’ She died in 1872 at Cannes, and was buried with her husband. By her Munro had two sons.

Munro was popular in cultivated and artistic society. Among his friends were John Ruskin—who stood godfather to one of his sons—Louis Blanc, and Giuseppe Mazzini.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Times, 13 Jan. 1871; Royal Academy Catalogues; private information.]

L. C.

MUNRO, Sir HECTOR (1726–1805), general, born in 1726, was son of Hugh Munro of Novar, Cromartyshire, and his wife Isobel Gordon, who died in 1799, aged 92. The Novar family was an ancient branch of Munro of Foulis, from which it separated in the fifteenth century. According to family tradition, Hector, when quite a lad, saved the life of a lady whose horses had run away with her, and she subsequently obtained a commission for him in the army. His name first appears in the military records, on appointment as ensign in the company commanded by Sir Harry Munro of Foulis in Lord Loudoun's highlanders, 28 May 1747 (Home Office Military Entry Book, vol. xix. f. 461). This was an unnumbered higland regiment, raised by John Campbell, fourth earl of Loudoun [q. v.], the greater part of which was taken by the clans on 30 March 1746, and sent to Prince Charles's headquarters at Inverness (cf. Fraser, Earls of Cromartie, ii. 397). The officers' commissions were dated June 1745. Among them was a George

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