Lot Essay
Phoebe Traquair (née Moss) was an extraordinarily versatile artist, working across mural, illumination, calligraphy, embroidery, enamel and watercolour. Irish by birth, she studied at Dublin School of Art, before marrying and settling in 1872 in Edinburgh, where she became heavily involved in the Arts and Crafts movement. Peter Rose recorded in 'It Must Be Done Now: The Arts and Crafts Exhibition at Burlington House’ (Op. cit.) that 'A close examination of a contemporary photo-graph of part of the Domus gallery shows a version of Phoebe Traquair's Love the Comforter of Night', with (probably) this work illustrated, fig. 7.