February 5, 1823

John Anster Christian Fitzgerald (1823 to 1906)  was probably baptized February 5 1823, according to a Victoriana website. This painter was the son of a minor poet, William Fitzgerald, who is now only famous for Byron's attack on him: "Let hoarse Fitzgerald bawl His creaking couplets in a tavern hall."

John Anster Fitzgerald was reclusive, though his paintings, particularly of fairy scenes, are worth a lot of money now, and on occasion forged. There is an uncommon (I hope) amount of blather in the cultural criticism of such topics--- we read for instance that "the sheer number of fairies displayed on [a particular] canvas...represented the population explosion that plagued a newly industrialized nation." And that the use of words like 'dream' and 'den' were evidence artists like Fitzgerald were smoking dope. If you want to see the effect of drugs on literature, read DeQuincy.

Another review points out "John Anster Fitzgerld's series of paintings on a group of fairies and a robin in its nest are almost studies in the stages of cruelty." Such criticism reveals the sheer number of English majors with no knowledge of history. It could be argued that the popular imagination before Disney was merely reflecting centuries of realistic observations, and that it is we today who are maimed mentally by our presuppositions.

Here is one of the "Christmas Fairies" Fitzgerald did for the Illustrated London News, in the 1850s.





And here is a painting of fairies with a cat, that John Anster Fitzgerald did:




More of Anster Fitzgerald's work is available here.