William Jabez Muckley (British 1829-1905) Still-Life: “Lilies and Poppies” Oil on Canvas

Fine Art : Paintings : Oil

 

William Jabez Muckley (British 1829-1905); Still-Life: “Lilies and Poppies”; Oil on Canvas; signed lower right; signed, titled and dated (1884) on the stretcher; mounted in a fine 19th century gilt composition frame; 54.5 x 45cm (21 1/2 x 17 3/4ins) sight (visible canvas) size (70 x 61cm (27 1/2 x 24ins) overall frame size)

The inscription on the stretcher reads: “W J Muckley Loweswater Cumberland 1884 Lilies and Popies [sic] Price £60-0-0”.

CONDITION: Very good, ready to hang. The canvas has been relined, probably around mid 20th century. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals there may have been some light filling of craqueleure towards the upper left corner, probably when it was relined, but no other signs of retouching or overpainting. There is good impasto – the painting has not been overcleaned, nor does it require cleaning. There is some very light crackling of the varnish layer and an upper stretcher mark is faintly visible. There is slight undulation of the canvas at the top edge.

BIOGRAPHY: Sources differ as to where William Jabez Muckley was born. Some have it as Audnam in Worcestershire, while others have it as Wordsley, Kingswinford, in Staffordshire or Woodsley in Worcestershire. At least, all seem to agree that it was in 1829 (if not about the exact date). He was the eldest of the seven children of Jabez Muckley, a glass artisan.

Muckley began work as a glasscutter for W.H. B. & J. Richardson of Wordsley, in time becoming their principal designer and engraver, but at only 22, he produced much of the engraving for which the firm won considerable acclaim in the 1851 Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace. When Richardson's went bankrupt 1852, he enrolled at the Birmingham School of Art, where won one of only eight scholarships available to students from all the art schools in Britain. He went on to study in London and Paris and in the course of his studies achieved four art degrees of the highest class. In the the second half of the 1850s, he was appointed head of the Burslem School of Art, where he remained for five years, before becoming headmaster of Wolverhampton School of Art. In 1862 he joined Manchester School of Art as principal.

Muckley exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1858 to 1904, also at The New Watercolour Society, Suffolk Street, the Royal Institution and the Grosvenor Gallery. He was a Member of The Royal Society of British Artists. Much of his work is housed at the Manchester City Art Gallery, where examples of his still-life paintings are held, as they are also at Dudley Museum & Art Gallery; The Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Oldham Gallery, Lancashire; Sheffield City Art Galleries; and Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

In 1878, he wrote “The Student's Manual of Artistic Anatomy”, which included 25 plates depicting the bones and surface muscles of the human figure, and in 1882 he wrote “A Handbook for Painters and Art Students” on the character, nature and use of colours. He retired to White Notley Hall, in Witham, Essex in around1900, and died there at home in 1905.

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Item ID: RL-0651