Lot 921: Archibald Wakley (1873-1906)

Archibald Wakley (1873-1906)
A Royal Princess
signed and dated 'ARCHIBALD/WAKLEY/1903' (lower right) and inscribed 'A Royal Princess/"But a vain shadow/If one considereth;/Vanity of Vanities/As the Preacher saith"/C.Rossetti./Archibald Wakley/76A Monmouth Road/Bayswater/W.' (on the reverse of the frame)
watercolour and bodycolour heightened with white and gold
21½ x 26¼ in. (54.5 x 66.5 cm.)

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
The inscription on the label to the reverse comes from Christina Rossetti's poem Mother Country, composed on the 7 February 1866. Archibald Wakley was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy and worked in both oils and watercolour. The present lot exhibits his allegiance to a Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic akin to Burne-Jones and De Morgan. Considered a prodigious talent, his promising career was cut short when he was brutally murdered in his Bayswater home in 1906.