Lot 117: ARCHIBALD WAKELY (BRITISH, 1873-1906)

ARCHIBALD WAKELY (BRITISH, 1873-1906)
A Royal Princess
signed and dated 'ARCHIBALD/WAKLEY/1903' (lower right) and further inscribed 'A Royal Princess/"But a vain shadow/If one considereth;/Vanity of Vanities/As the Preacher saith"/C.Rosetti./Archibald Wakley/76A Monmouth Road/Westbourne Grove/Bayswater/London W. £63."0"0./No.1' (on a label on the reverse of the frame) and further inscribed 'Archibald Wakley/76A Monmouth Road/Bayswater/W.' (on the reverse of the frame)
watercolour and bodycolour heightened with white and gold paint
21½ x 26¼ in. (54.5 x 66.5 cm.)
In the original carved and gilded frame

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
All lots removed to off-site warehouse the day after the sale - 2 weeks free storage
The inscription on the label to the reverse comes from Christina Rosetti'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-Raphealite aesthetic akin to Burne-Jones and De Morgan. Wakley was brutally murdered in his Bayswater home in 1906.