Arthur Murch (illustrator)

Arthur Murch (1836 – 2 December 1885) was an English painter and illustrator.

Life

He was the younger son of Jerom Murch (1807–1895), Unitarian minister at Bath, Somerset, and his wife Anne Meadows Taylor (1800–1893).^[1][2][3]

Murch was a pupil of Charles Gleyre, in 1859. Meeting Val Prinsep and Frederic Leighton in Rome, where he was painting, he was persuaded by Leighton to study drawing in Paris.^[4] He became a Captain in the Somersetshire Rifle Volunteers in 1864.^[5] He was sharing a studio in Great Russell Street, London in the later 1860s, with Frederick Jameson (1839–1916), but suffering from health problems.^[4][6] He was in Italy, 1871 to 1873, being in Capri in 1872.^[7] During the early 1880s he lived in Rome, with his wife.^[8]

Murch belonged to The Arts Club from 1865 to 1877.^[4] He died on 2 December 1885, at Aachen.^[9]

Works

The Flight of Adrammelech, biblical illustration by Arthur Murch, and based on a watercolour by Frederick Charles Cooper of Assyrian artefacts in the British Museum^[10]

Murch worked on Dalziels' Bible Gallery, published by the Dalziel Brothers.^[11] Walter Crane, who knew Murch, noted that he was "meticulous", and finished little. His reputation was based on the two illustrations he produced for the Bible Gallery.^[12]

Family

Arthur Murch married Edith Edenborough, who after his death remarried on 17 March 1891 to Matthew Ridley Corbet.^[13][14] Edith was one of the Scuola Etrusca, around Giovanni Costa.^[15]

Arthur and Edith had a son, Denis Jerom Murch, born at Venice in 1874. Later in the Royal Artillery, he was left property in Sir Jerom Murch's will. He died in the Second Boer War, at Sanna's Post.^{[2][16][17][18]}

Notes

1. Kolaczkowski, Alex. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/63274. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. "Death of Lieut. Denis Murch". Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette. 3 May 1900. Retrieved 5 September 2014 – via British Newspaper Archive.
3. "Death of Sir Jerom Murch". Wells Journal. 16 May 1895. Retrieved 5 September 2014 – via British Newspaper Archive.
4. "The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler :: Biography". Retrieved 5 September 2014.
5. "Rifle Competition". Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette. 30 June 1864. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
6. "The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler :: People Search - Single Document Display". Retrieved 5 September 2014.
7. Steven Winford Holloway. Orientalism, Assyriology and the Bibleyear=2006. Sheffield Phoenix Press. p. 289. ISBN 978-1-905048-37-3.
8. Steven Winford Holloway. Orientalism, Assyriology and the Bibleyear=2006. Sheffield Phoenix Press. p. 290. ISBN 978-1-905048-37-3.
9. "Deaths". Morning Post. 8 December 1885. Retrieved 5 September 2014 – via British Newspaper Archive.
10. Steven Winford Holloway. Orientalism, Assyriology and the Bibleyear=2006. Sheffield Phoenix Press. p. 291. ISBN 978-1-905048-37-3.
11. "Arthur Murch, The Flight of Adrammelech (Dalziels' Bible Gallery)". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
12. Rodney K. Engen (1985). Dictionary of Victorian wood engravers. Teaneck, N.J. p. 189. ISBN 978-0-85964-139-5.
13. "British Museum - Term details". Retrieved 5 September 2014.
14. "Marriages". Hampshire Advertiser. 21 March 1891. Retrieved 5 September 2014 – via British Newspaper Archive.
15. Giuliana Pieri (2007). The Influence of Pre-Raphaelitism on Fin de Siècle Italy: Art, Beauty and Culture. MHRA. pp. 94–. ISBN 978-1-904350-44-6.
16. "Births". Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette. 10 December 1874. Retrieved 5 September 2014 – via British Newspaper Archive.
17. "UK National Inventory of War Memorials : D J MURCH". Retrieved 5 September 2014.
18. "Sir Jerom Murch's Will". Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette. 19 September 1895. Retrieved 5 September 2014 – via British Newspaper Archive.