Muscats

William Jabez Muckley worked as a glasscutter, designer and engraver before studying fine art in Birmingham, London and Paris. Muckley specialised in flower and still-life subjects characterised by rich colours and skillfully rendered textures, which demonstrate the influence of seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish still-lifes. Bunches of grapes, like those in this painting, were a recurring central motif in Muckley’s work. In addition to his work as an artist, Muckley had a distinguished career within the Government Schools of Art, run from their headquarters at the South Kensington Museum. In the late 1850s he was appointed head of the Burslem School of Art and shortly afterwards, was made headmaster of the Wolverhampton Art School. In 1862 he became principal of the Manchester School of Art.