Lot 244: Frederick James Shields, A.R.W.S. (1833-1911)

A cartoon for the high altar of the chapel of the Ascension, Bayswater Road numbered '157' (lower left) oil on canvas 441/2 x 26 in. (113 x 66 cm.) PROVENANCE Henry J. Murcott. EXHIBITION Manchester City Art Gallery, Exhibition of Works by Frederick Shields, 1907. NOTES Shields was a Manchester painter, watercolourist and decorator whose artistic career was determined when he saw the works of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood at the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857. He later became a close friend of both Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown although his work, which is strongly realistic and religious in outlook, perhaps comes closest to Holman Hunt than any other Pre-Raphaelite artists. Although he often worked in watercolour and for many years exhibited at the Royal Watercolour Society his two most substantial commisions were mural decorations for the chapel at Eaton Hall, Cheshire, seat of the Dukes of Westminster, and the chapel of the Ascension, Bayswater Road. This oil is a cartoon for the high altar of the latter. The chapel was commissioned by Mrs Russell Gurney, widow of The Recorder of London, in the hope that it would provide a sanctuary for meditation away from the hubub of nearby Marble Arch. The chapel was designed by Herbert Horne in 1887 and although construction began in 1890, legal disputes ensured that it was not completed until 1910. Shields chose to decorate the interior with the principle scenes of Christ's life, and visited Italy in 1889 to gather material for the sequence. The fruits of this visit are clearly visible in the present work.