![The Concert [The Music Party]](8.jpg)
The Concert [The Music Party], by Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919). Oil on canvas. 25 x 96 inches (63.5 x 243.8 cm). Private collection. Image ©2023 Christie's Images Limited, reproduced by kind permission (right click disabled; not to be downloaded).
The principal version of The Concert was exhibited at the New Gallery in 1890, no. 252, as The Music Party. It features fourteen young female musicians with their instruments grouped in a linear fashion along a ledge. Some are looking at musical scores as if preparing to play. The painting is treated in Murray's favourite "Venetian" style with the musicians wearing richly coloured costumes. It was bought from the New Gallery show by Murray's friend, the architect Thomas Collcutt, as decoration for the foyer of the new Palace Theatre, Cambridge Circus, London, which he had designed for Richard D'Oyly Carte. The theatre opened in 1891. When the picture sold at Christie's on 25 May 2023 their experts pointed out: "It shows Fairfax Murray's deep appreciation for Italian painting, but also demonstrates a central tenet of the Aesthetic Movement that art should be devoid of narrative and seek instead to be beautiful and to evoke mood. It also echoes Walter Pater's famous dictum that "all art should aspire to the condition of music."
Study for The Concert. Oil on panel. 7 3/4 x 28 in. (19.8 x 71.1 cm.). Private collection. Image ©2023 Christie's Images Limited; reproduced by kind permission (right click disabled; not to be downloaded).
A preliminary study for The Concert, or possibly a simplified smaller replica, also sold at Christie's at the same sale in 2023. This version contained only eleven figures and is more loosely handled, The composition is similar but differs in significant details such as the placement of figures and the colours of the draperies.
The Concert. Oil on wood panel. 7 5/8 x 31 1/8 inches (19.5 x 79 cm).). Private collection. Image courtesy of Auktionhaus Zofingen, Zofingen, Switzerland.
A preliminary study for The Concert, or possibly a simplified smaller replica, also sold at Christie's at the same sale in 2023. This version contained only eleven figures and is more loosely handled, The composition is similar but differs in significant details such as the placement of figures and the colours of the draperies. A third version recently sold at Auktionhaus Zofingen, Zofingen, Switzerland, on 4 June 2025, lot 3991. Its composition shows a much closer correspondence with the principal version than the smaller study, although it is much closer in size to the small study.
Related Material
- A Music Party by Arthur Hughes
- A Music Piece [The Drawing Room], by Thomas Armstrong
- Musicians, by T.M. Rooke
Bibliography
Breuer, David et. al., Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters, The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2003, cat. 65, 102 & 304.
Christian, John. Burne-Jones and Followers. Tokyo: The Tokyo Shimbun, 1987, cat. 40, 107.
Elliott, David B. Charles Fairfax Murray. The Unknown Pre-Raphaelite. Lewes, Sussex: The Book Guild Ltd., 2000. 115.
Frühlingsauktion 2025. Zofingen, Switzerland: Auktionhaus Zofingen, (4 June 2025): lot 3991. https://live.auktionshaus-zofingen.ch/lots/view/1-AK9Q5M/murray-charles-fairfax
Three Private Collections: Belgravia, Berkshire and Guernsey. London: Christie's (25 May 2023): lots 130 & 131. https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6427953?ldp_breadcrumb=back and https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6427954?ldp_breadcrumb=back
Created 21 February 2026