Friday, August 20, 2010

John Anster Fitzgerald - A Tempting Present



Price Realized £6,573

oil on canvas
16 x 12 in. (40.6 x 30.5 cm.)

Fitzgerald is best known for his fairy subjects, but in this early work and another entitled Christmas, 1858 he shows himself a thorough follower of the Pre-Raphaelite movement which had been formed in 1848 and gained many adherents. Both pictures show technical similarity to the early works by members of the Brotherhood and also a certain wilful quirkiness. The effect has been likened to the work of the Liverpool Pre-Raphaelite John Lee.

Fitzgerald began to exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1845, and showed fairly regularly until 1881, and then after a long interval in 1902, four years before his death.

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