The Committee of the Sweny Mahlstick Relief Fund Invite Sir James Bacon to the Private View of Pictures & Sculptures Contributed to the Fund.

Etching, ticket, 200 x 230 mm. This item may have at some time been mounted and will bear traces on the reverse of adhesive or removal of mounts. H. W. Sweeney [or Sweny] a journalist who wrote under the name of Mahlstick was assaulted and left for dead on the Fulham Road in October, 1887 leaving a widow and family. A group of fellow artists held an exhibition to raise funds on their behalf. Whistler, president of the Society at that time, contributed an etching. The design is by John Aster Fitzgerald [1819 - 1906], known as "Fairy Fitzgerald", a reclusive artist, he created a series of Christmas fairies for the Illustrated London News, but produced fanciful and colourful oil paintings; ".remarkable fairy pictures of pure fantasy, rarely based on any literary theme." [ Christopher Wood. Victorian Painting. 1999] He has recently seen a resurgence of interest leading to his oil paintings fetching between £30,000 and £120,000, though the record stands at £500,000.