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Lot Essay
From 1862 Stacy Marks was a member of the St John's Wood Clique, a group of young artists who derived many of their often romantic subjects from historical genre, both literary and imaginative, chiefly from the Middle Ages. The seven members, including Philip Hermogenes Calderon, David Wilkie Wynfield, William Frederick Yeames and George Dunlop Leslie, followed the maxim that ‘The better each man’s picture, the better for all’ (Marks, loc. cit., p. 147). Later in his career he focussed on bird subjects, for which he is now better known.
The present work was commissioned by Sir Robert William Edis, an architect who lived at 14 Fitzroy Square. Marks noted that ‘For my friend R.W. Edis’s dining room in Fitzroy Square I painted figures of Fish, Flesh, Fowl, Wine, Beer, and Tobacco – the banquet, arrival and departure of the guests. In the front drawing-room are fanciful garden scenes with female figures. In the room beyond, conventional birds disport themselves.’ (Marks, op. cit., p. 210).
Marks received a number of commissions for friezes: on the exterior of the Albert Hall, London; those of the Virtues from Lord Crewe for the library at Crewe Hall; for Birket Foster of Shakespeare’s Seven Ages for his house in Witley (sold in these Rooms, April 1894); the Four Seasons for Alma-Tadema’s house; and Chaucer’s Pilgrims for the Duke of Westminster’s house Eaton Hall.
The present work was commissioned by Sir Robert William Edis, an architect who lived at 14 Fitzroy Square. Marks noted that ‘For my friend R.W. Edis’s dining room in Fitzroy Square I painted figures of Fish, Flesh, Fowl, Wine, Beer, and Tobacco – the banquet, arrival and departure of the guests. In the front drawing-room are fanciful garden scenes with female figures. In the room beyond, conventional birds disport themselves.’ (Marks, op. cit., p. 210).
Marks received a number of commissions for friezes: on the exterior of the Albert Hall, London; those of the Virtues from Lord Crewe for the library at Crewe Hall; for Birket Foster of Shakespeare’s Seven Ages for his house in Witley (sold in these Rooms, April 1894); the Four Seasons for Alma-Tadema’s house; and Chaucer’s Pilgrims for the Duke of Westminster’s house Eaton Hall.