John Anster Fitzgerald

The Fairy’s Lake

?exhibited 1866

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Not on display

Artist
John Anster Fitzgerald 1819–1906
Medium
Oil paint on board
Dimensions
Support: 152 × 203 mm
frame: 262 × 325 × 30 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Purchased 1968
Reference
T01083

Display caption

Not much is known about Fitzgerald. He is generally remembered today for his pictures of fairyland, this one probably being the example shown at the Royal Academy in 1866. Other paintings by him depict humans deep in sleep, conjuring up in their dreams a fantastic world of elves, sprites and devils similar to the creature shown here astride the wings of a bat, attempting to spear an innocent water-sprite. Fitzgerald also executed a series of large fairy subjects for Christmas editions of 'The Illustrated London News'.

Gallery label, September 2004

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Catalogue entry

John Austen Fitzgerald 1832-c.1908
T01083 THE FAIRY'S LAKE ? Exh. 1866
Inscribed ‘J. A Fitzgerald’ b.l.
Oil on board, 6 1/16×8 1/16 (15·4×20·5)
Purchased from Mrs Robert Frank (Elizabeth Pentland Bequest) 1968.
Coll: ...; sold Bonham's, 9 May 1968 (225), bt. Fine Art Society Ltd., from whom bt. by Mrs Robert Frank.
Exh: ? R.A. 1866 (412).

Previously titled ‘An Imp on a Bat attacking a Water-sprite’, T1083 is probably ‘The Fairy's Lake’ shown at the R.A. in 1866.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery: Acquisitions 1968-9, London 1969

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