Whilst researching the second generation of Pre-Raphaelites for this site, the name Charles Fairfax Murray has frequently been mentioned, and of course, he was a studio assistant to Edward Burne-Jones in the late 1860s. He was also known to supply painted backgrounds to Rossetti.

Charles Fairfax Murray was born in 1849, and came from a poor background. He started work as a draughtsman in an engineering company. Later he worked for Morris & Co, designing stained glass windows. He met Ruskin, who regarded him as a great copyist, and sent him to Italy to copy Old Master paintings. The influence of Italian Old Masters stayed with him for the rest of his life. His other main influences were Rossetti and Burne-Jones, though it would be very unfair to regard his work as being merely derivative of theirs.

Murray was a short, bustling, rather assertive individual. He had a real talent for producing portrait drawings of his friends. His output of pictures was very small, as it would seem he lacked confidence in his own artistic ability. In the 19th century Old Master drawings were very cheap, and Murray amassed a vast collection of them. The large part of these were bought en masse by J Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), the American financier and banking magnate.

Murray, due to his lack of confidence, became mainly known for his activities as a dealer and collector with excellent taste. He was a generous benefactor to the National Gallery and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.