1000 Museums

(1800 – 1896)

Amelia Jane Murry was a Victorian fairy artist, using watercolor to render fairies and flowers inspired by the folklore of the Island of Man, where she grew up. She was the daughter of Lord Henry Murray and the niece of John Murray, the 4th Duke of Atholl. Her earliest paintings date to the early 1820s. Her fairy paintings were often based on Manx folklore, carefully depicting a rich knowledge of flora and fauna as delicate fairies are painted on top of the natural landscape. In 1829 she married Sir John Oswald of Dunniker and from then known as Lady Oswald. They moved to Fife, Scottland, and raised eight children, six from Sir John Oswald’s previous marriage and two from their own. After he died in 1840, she stopped painting. She passed away in 1896. In 1985, her fairy paintings were formally published in a book titled “A Regency Lady’s Fairy Bower.”