Study of a Woman with a Book

Charles Fairfax Murray

1883 · Graphite · Drawings and Prints

Fairfax Murray trained under Edward Burne-Jones, worked for Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris, then lived in Italy between 1875 and 1886. There he acted as agent for London's National Gallery, and formed an important collection of old master drawings later acquired by J. Pierpont Morgan. This portrait likely represents someone in the family circle of Marie Spartali Stillman and her American husband William Stillman—Marie was a Pre-Raphaelite painter and the couple moved between London and Florence in the 1880s. Fairfax Murray was close to the family and drew many of them in a way that echoes Renaissance prototypes

Artist

Charles Fairfax Murray

Date

1883

Medium

Graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2016