Charles Fairfax Murray

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Charles Fairfax Murray
1849-1919
Aeneas
Watercolor over graphite on paper.
7 7/8 x 7 3/4 inches (201 x 196 mm)
Gift of Jennifer Vorbach.
2007.73
Notes: 

This watercolor Aeneas is probably a study for one of several illustrations that Fairfax Murray designed for Kelmscott Press, William Morris's private printing press that modeled its products on the Italian incunabula of the fifteenth century. It is quite likely that this representation of Aeneas as a medieval knight in a suit of armor was created as a template for a woodcut print book illustration.

Inscription: 

Inscribed, in watercolor, in top margin, "XI"; with framing lines in graphite; on verson, in graphite, at lower center,"5 [_]"; in ballpoint pen, "176";across bottom, "2" x 2 1/4 Ivory mat / Est CLEAN 75 p"; square sticker inscribed with "53. AENEAS / C.F. MURRAY"

Provenance: 
Sale, Sotheby's Belgravia, London, 20 March 1979, lot 11.
Associated names: 

Vorbach, Jennifer, former owner.

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