JOHN ANSTER FITZGERALD
(1823-1906)
 

Fairy Lovers in a Bird’s nest watching a white mouse

c.1860

watercolour and bodycolour on paper,

19.9 x 16.7 cm

inscribed: monogram FG

P.423

Originally attributed to Frederick Goodall, R.A. (1822-1904), who occasionally painted similar subjects, though with less whimsy.

Fitzgerald was a painter of fairy scenes and dreams (people asleep surrounded by goblins); all his works are of his imagination. His paintings are rare and little is known of his life. He was the son of the poet William Thomas Fitzgerald and had little or no formal art training. By the 1850s he was contributing to The Illustrated London News as an illustrator. He belonged to the Maddox St Sketching Club and exhibited at the R.A., 1845-1902, his final exhibit there being Alice in Wonderland.

EJ

PROVENANCE: J.S. Maas & Co Ltd, from whom purchased by Gallery July 1962 as A Fairy Scene by Frederick Goodall RA.

EXHIBITIONS: Watercolours From Bedford, Norwich, Castle Museum, 1965, no.17 as Fairy Scene by Goodall; Fairies, Brighton, Brighton Art Gallery and Museums, 1980, no.D48 as Fairy Scene; Victorian Fairy Painting, London, RA, Iowa, University of Iowa Museum of Art and Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1998, no.48.

REFERENCES: J.S. Maas, Victorian Painters, 1969, p.160, as Fairy Scene; B. Phillpotts, Fairy Paintings, 1978, pl.17 as Fairy Scene; J. Martineau (ed.), Victorian Fairy Painting, 1997, p.125, cat.no.48.

Copyright © Trustees of Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford.

Extract taken from Watercolours and Drawings, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery by Evelyn Joll.