A male figure dressed in orange holding a palm; and A female figure dressed in blue holding a palm

These paintings of unidentified female and male allegorical figures possibly relate to the decorative panels Fairfax Murray painted for the Green Dining Room at the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A). The room was one of the first major commissions for Morris, Marshall & Faulkner & Co.. The initial panel designs were drawn by Burne-Jones but executed by several different painters. However, Morris was unhappy with the resulting variety and had all the panels repainted by Charles Fairfax Murray. Another possibility is that they form part of the sixty designs that Murray produced as decorative panels for cabinets and other pieces of furniture designed by the firm Collinson and Lock. A number of these panels were removed in later decades as tastes in interior decoration changed.

These two paintings appear to be part of a set of three similar works by Murray formerly in the collection of John Stafford. The three figures were exhibited at the Maas Gallery in 1977, and the third was sold in An Aesthetic Odyssey: The Peter Rose and Albert Gallichan Collection; Christie's, London, 30 September 2021, lot 56 for £10,625. A similar painting was also sold in The Isabel Goldsmith Collection: Selected Pre-Raphaelite and Symbolist Art, Christie's, London, 14 July 2022, lot 43 for £6,930.