[A Royal Princess]
signed ARCHIBALD/WAKLEY/1903 l.r.
inscribed 'A Royal Princess/"But a vain shadow.If one considereth/Vanity of Vanities/As the Preacher saith"/C. Rossetti/Archibald Wakley/76A Monmouth Road/Bayswater/W.'
Watercolour and bodycolour heightened with white and gold
21.5 x 26 1/4"
.
1873 - 1906.
.
Price Realized £3000 (2009)
The inscription on the label to the reverse comes from Christina Rossetti's poem Mother Country, composed on the 7 February 1866. Archibald Wakley was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy and worked in both oils and watercolour. The present lot exhibits his allegiance to a Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic akin to Burne-Jones and De Morgan. Considered a prodigious talent, his promising career was cut short when he was brutally murdered in his Bayswater home in 1906.
No comments:
Post a Comment