Artist: Marcus Stone (English, 1840-1921)
Title: The Duel Interrupted
Medium: Antique engraving on wove paper after the original by master engraver Herbert Bourne (British, C. 1825 – 1907).
Signature: Signed in the plate.
Dimensions: Image Size 6 1/4 x 10 1/8 inches.
Framed Dimensions: Image Size 15 x 19 inches.
Framing: This piece has been professionally matted and framed using all new materials.
The Duel Interrupted; a young woman in Elizabethan dress rushing to stay the hand of a young man standing on the left, who looks to right at his opponent, flanked by his second and an elderly woman who talk eagerly behind his back, while the doctor, standing to right, holding a gourd, gestures towards the food-basket and tankard waiting on the ground and the younger man’s second stands officiously to left, with a half-timbered building in the background.
Marcus Stone was an English painter. He was the son of Frank Stone ARA, trained by his father and began to exhibit at the Royal Academy, before he was eighteen. A few years later he illustrated, with much success, books by Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and other writers who were friends of his family. Stone was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1877, and Academician in 1887. In his earlier pictures, he dealt much with historical incidents, but in his later work, he occupied himself chiefly with a particular type of dainty sentiment, treated with much charm, refinement and executive skill. One of his canvases is in Tate. Most of his works have been engraved, and medals were awarded to him at exhibitions in all parts of the world. Blue plaque Stone and fellow painter Luke Fildes both lived in Melbury Road, Holland Park, in houses designed by Richard Norman Shaw. A blue plaque commemorates Stone at his house at 8 Melbury Road. Stone married Laura Brown, the daughter of the Zealand merchant William Brown.