Lot Essay
Edward Clifford was deeply religious, and was honorary Secretary of the evangelical Church Army. His work often takes passages from the Bible as its subject, and the present watercolour is taken from the Epistle of St Paul to the Hebrews: ‘Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.’ Alongside Robert Bateman, Walter Crane and others, Clifford was part of a group of followers of Burne-Jones who exhibited at the Dudley Gallery in the late 1860s and 1870s.