In the world of fairy art there are so many images from history we are familiar with, from sweet flower fairies to darker images of elemental beings that are almost nightmarish to the imagination. One of the most popular Victorian fairy painters, one of my personal favorites, and one who blended stunning natural history art with the otherworldly ‘unnatural’ history was the self-taught artist John Anster Fitzgerald, so associated with Victorian fairy art that his nickname was “Fairy Fitzgerald”.
Born in Lambeth, London, with a rather “fluid” official birth date, he was the son of poet William Thomas Fitzgerald. His Irish ancestry lent further fairy fascination to his life, Ireland and Eire both being countries of so much fairy folklore and legend. He married in 1849 and he and his wife, Mary, created a home with four sons and two daughters. His youngest daughter, Florence, no doubt inspired by her father, also became an artist and sculptor.
During his lifetime as a professional artist, he exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, in 1845; also at the British Institution, the Society of British Artists, and the Royal Watercolour Society. The popular newspaper, and world’s first news magazine, ‘The Illustrated London News’ commissioned Fitzgerald to illustrate a collection of Christmas fairies that appeared regularly in their festive editions. Often his original paintings would be renamed by galleries as his own titles were a little vague in relation to the subject of the paintings and so there has always been confusion and contradiction in the history of the artwork of Fitzgerald.
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#1 Fairies In A Bird’s Nest
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#2 Fairies Looking Through A Gothic Arch
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#3 Fairy Hordes Attacking A Bat
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#4 Sea Sprites In Flight
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#5 The Fairy’s Barque
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#6 The Fairies’ Banquet
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#7 The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of
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#8 Rabbit Among The Fairies
#9 The Fairy’s Favourite
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#10 The Realms Of Fairydom
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#11 Who Killed Cock Robin
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