Portrait of Donald Currie

According to William Michael Rossetti, it was Peter Marshall who suggested founding the decorating firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. in 1861. He had met the leaders of the Pre-Raphaelite movement through Ford Madox Brown. Although an engineer by profession he practiced as an artist in his spare time. Donald Currie was the owner of the Union-Castle steamship company and the artist's brother-in-law. Both men married daughters of John Miller, a Liverpool wine merchant, and major Pre-Raphaelite patron. This drawing shows great similarity to Brown's late chalk portraits, even down to the stylized monogram and date in the lower right corner.