Lot Essay
This was on the first of the pages in Miss Moore's album inscribed by her 'Mrs Wainwright's'. It is tempting to identify Mrs Wainwright with Eliza Frances Ward who, in 1821, married the notorious poisoner and forger Thomas Griffiths Wainewright; the misspelling without the 'e' was a frequent one (see, for example, Alexander Gilchrist, The Life of William Blake, both reprinted in G.E. Bentley 1863, vol. 1, p. 278, and one of Jr. John Linnell's cash account Blake Records, 1969, pp. 280 and 327 n. 3). Wainewright (1794-1847) was a follower and admirer of Fuseli, whose works he praised extravagantly in his reviews under the pseudonym 'Janus Weathercock'. He owned at least two drawings by Fuseli and probably the painting Eve in the Garden sold at Christie's on 22 May 1827, lot 55, bought by 'Wainwright'. He was also a friend of William Blake, previewing the appearance of Blake's Jerusalem in the London Magazine for September 1820 (in which he refers to Blake as 'Dr. Tobias Ruddicombe') and commissioning a late copy of Songs of Innocence and of Experience; he also owned copies of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Milton. In desperate need of money he seems to have murdered his uncle, his mother-in-law and his half sister-in-law, being finally deported Australia in 1837 for forgery in connection with the last named victim. His wife, whom is also sometimes said to have been his victim, survived him, dying in America in 1851 where she had gone with her son Griffiths Wainewright, perhaps Thomas's son but perhaps, if one is to believe Barry Cornwall, the son of 'a disspipated and impoverished peer' (see Jonathan Curling, James Weathercock, the Life of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, 1938, passim and also Bentley, op. cit.
Fuseli not only knew Wainewright and his wife but also Mrs. Wainewright's two half-sisters, Helen and Madeleine Abercromby, who Mary Balmanro (Pen and Pencil, 1858, p. 207) met in his studio in about 1821.
This drawing is a varial of S. 1090 (repr. in colour) in Zurich, dated by Schiff to c. 1790-95. The pose of the figure is the same but in the Zurich drawing her hair is powdered and the background is varied. As well as other minor differences the full length of the figure is shown, including the feet, which suggests that the Zurich version is a more studied development of lot ...
Fuseli married Sophia Rawkins of Batheaston, an artist's model, on 30 July 1788 and she served as model for a considerable number of drawings, and oil paintings, in the 1790s, S. 930, 1084-1119. In this drawing the hairstyle reflects the fashions of c. 1790-94. Later, in the first decade of the 19th century, he abandoned direct portraits of her for fantasies, often of courtesans, based on her image. Later still he renewed his inspirations from a number of young girls such as Lavinia de Ijuro, as in lots ....
Fuseli not only knew Wainewright and his wife but also Mrs. Wainewright's two half-sisters, Helen and Madeleine Abercromby, who Mary Balmanro (Pen and Pencil, 1858, p. 207) met in his studio in about 1821.
This drawing is a varial of S. 1090 (repr. in colour) in Zurich, dated by Schiff to c. 1790-95. The pose of the figure is the same but in the Zurich drawing her hair is powdered and the background is varied. As well as other minor differences the full length of the figure is shown, including the feet, which suggests that the Zurich version is a more studied development of lot ...
Fuseli married Sophia Rawkins of Batheaston, an artist's model, on 30 July 1788 and she served as model for a considerable number of drawings, and oil paintings, in the 1790s, S. 930, 1084-1119. In this drawing the hairstyle reflects the fashions of c. 1790-94. Later, in the first decade of the 19th century, he abandoned direct portraits of her for fantasies, often of courtesans, based on her image. Later still he renewed his inspirations from a number of young girls such as Lavinia de Ijuro, as in lots ....