John Anster Fitzgerald (1832-1906) Crows and Fairies,  sig...

Hammer

€4,400

John Anster Fitzgerald (1832-1906)

Crows and Fairies,  signed lower left, ‘J. A. Fitzgerald’

In this wonderfully imaginative watercolour, John Anster Fitzgerald depicts a flock of black crows being teased by fairies and sprites. A fantasy frog dances in front of one bird, while a winged goblin flutters above another discomfited crow. Other birds are being danced upon, and put to flight by the ferocious winged sprites. Painted with verve and spirit, this battle between sprites and birds is characteristic of an artist who was dubbed ‘Fairy Fitzgerald’.

The painter of these fantastic and hallucinatory images of birds, sprites and fairies, John Anster Fitzgerald was born in London in 1832 (although some accounts give his date of birth as 1819). The son of the poet William Thomas Fitzgerald, his grandfather was Irish, and there is a strong resonance of Irish folk beliefs evident in his work. As an artist he seems to have been largely self-taught, but became celebrated for elaborate and highly-coloured paintings such as The Death of the Fairy Queen, Cock Robin defending his nest, The Chase of the White Mouse and The Fairy’s Barque, He was also famous for his illustration work, and the late 1850’s his drawings of fairies were reproduced in the Christmas edition of the Illustrated London News. Fitzgerald exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, and also showed at the Royal Watercolour Society. The last painting he exhibited at the RA was a depiction of Alice in Wonderland. In 1849, he married Mary Ann Barr and they had at least six children. He was a long-time member of the Langham Sketching Club, founded in 1838, but left in 1898 to join the Savage Club. In receipt of a pension from the Royal Academy, Fitzgerald died in 1906.
Dr. Peter Murray, 2022