Fairfax Murray Papers

Held at: University of Manchester, John Rylands University Library of Manchester
Reference and contact details: GB 0133 Eng Ms 1278-1283
Title: Fairfax Murray Papers
Dates of Creation: 1800-1919
Extent: 0.11 cu.m
Creator: Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, painter and art collector
Level of Description: FONDS
Language of Material: eng
Published by: John Rylands University Library of Manchester

150 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3EH, United Kingdom
phone: +44 (0) 161-834-5343
fax: +44 (0) 161-834-5574
e-mail: spcoll72@fs1.li.man.ac.uk

Administrative/Biographical History

Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), was a Pre-Raphaelite painter and art collector. Fairfax Murray worked as a copyist for John Ruskin and was assistant to Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones. He later worked as a buying agent for the National Gallery and a consultant for Messrs Agnew, but is best known as a collector of art.

Administrative Information

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased at auction on 30 May 1961 from A.R.Murray, son of Fairfax Murray.

Scope and Content

The Fairfax Murray papers constitute an invaluable resource for students of Victorian art. The collection numbers over 1,500 items. There are important groupings of material relating to Sir Edward Burne-Jones, including letters from his wife Georgiana and photographs of the Burne-Jones and Morris children; letters and photographs relating to Charles Augustus Howell, who was for many years Ruskin's secretary and later close companion of Rossetti, Whistler and Swinburne; and letters and papers of the sculptors and brothers William, Henry and Charles Behnes (William Behnes was Sculptor in Ordinary to Queen Victoria). In addition there are over 700 letters to Fairfax Murray from a wide range of correspondents and 200 letters exchanged between other correspondents. These include many of the leading figures of the contemporary art world, such as Charles Locke Eastlake, Sir Fredric William Burton, George Cruikshank, Myles Birket Foster, William Holman Hunt, Frederic Lord Leighton, William Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Ruskin, Frederick Sandys and Joseph Severn.

System of Arrangement

The collection has been arranged in the Eng Mss series as follows:

  • Eng Ms 1278Burne-Jones Correspondence
  • Eng Ms 1279Letters of Frederick Sandys
  • Eng Ms 1280Charles Augustus Howell correspondence
  • Eng Ms 1281Letters to Charles Fairfax Murray
  • Eng Ms 1282Miscellanea
  • Eng Ms 1283Behnes correspondence

Administrative Information

Existence of Copies

Published microfilm: John Ruskin, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and Arts and Crafts Movement: the Ruskin, Holman Hunt, Fairfax Murray, Spielmann and Related Collections from the John Rylands University Library, Manchester (Woodbridge: Research Publications, 1990).

Further Information

Finding Aids

Recorded in published handlist of English Manuscripts (English MSS 1278-1283). Detailed handlist for Eng Ms 1282.

Related Units of Description

See also related material about Victorian art and artists in the John Ruskin Papers, the Holman Hunt Papers and the Spielmann Collection at JRULM.