Watercolour and bodycolour

Signed and dated 1906

23.50 x 35.50cm (9.25 x 13.98 inches)

Louis Fairfax Muckley was born in Worcestershire and studied at Birmingham School of Art where his fellow classmates and friends were the artists Frank Richards and Arthur Gasken. A leading illustrator, etcher, painter and designer, he came into contact with the influential art of William Morris and while still a student he illustrated his first major book: R. D. Blackmore’s Fringila (1885). In the 1890’s Muckley was commissioned for numerous illustrations from leading periodicals such as The Graphic and the Illustrated London News. He was also a founding designer for The Quest (the short-lived periodical of the Birmingham Guild of Handicraft) and The Quiver. Perhaps his finest achievement was his illustrative work for the Kelmscott Press, Spenser’s Faerie Queen, which was published in 1897 and considered a masterpiece of late Pre-Raphaelite art.