MUCKLE, Mary Jane

1866 - 1929

As Mary Jane Gruby, she was born at Kingston-Upon-Hull, Yorkshire on 13 April 1866, younger daughter of Richard Gruby (1835-13 April 1879), shipping agent, and his wife Martha Chaplin née Hender (1840-1915) who married at Kingston-Upon-Hull on 16 August 1862. Mary studied at Hull School of Art 1881-1886 winning several annual prizes and the Thomas Barton Holmes Scholarship in 1883 and where she met her future husband, Stephen Carlill. She married firstly at St John's Newlands, Hull, Yorkshire on 16 April 1892, artist Stephen Briggs Carlill (1859-1903), eldest son of Stephen Carlill and Catherine née Beckett. For the better light for their painting, they lived in North Africa for a time, they then purchased a farm in South Africa, Hilltop, Polela, Natal where they raised horses. On 26 February 1903, Stephen Briggs Carlill was murdered, apparently by natives, after which Mary Jane returned to England. As Mary Jane Carlill, she married secondly at Watford, Hertfordshire on 28 January 1905, Gilford James Muckle, an artist decorator, and in 1911 they were living at 7 Netherton Grove, Chelsea with their five-year-old son Thomas Richard Muckle. Mary was a miniature portrait painter and an Associate of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters from 1914. She exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery; the Royal Academy and the Royal Miniature Society 1909-1928 from Kings Langley, Hertfordshire 1909, London 1911 and Gedgrave near Orford, Suffolk in 1928. Mary Jane Muckle died at Gedgrave on 10 May 1929, aged 63.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from Gedgrave, Orford, Suffolk
1928 983 Miss Sallie Arkle
1104 Thomas Arkle, Esq.