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Lot Essay
Influenced by his great friend William Morris, Burne-Jones made designs from embroidery from the outset of his career, alongside designs for stained glass, tiles, and tapestries. One of the earliest is a design for silk embroidery dated 1861, depicting Saints Cecilia and Dorothea (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery). For all such designs Burne-Jones created crisp, graphic cartoons in pencil from which the embroidery could be copied. Sometimes, as in the present drawing, he then overlaid these with richly coloured chalks in order to explore the possibilities of colour and tone.
The Heart of the Lotus is a design for an embroidered evening bag. Unlike earlier embroidery designs from the 1870s, it was intended to be executed in solid, rather than outline, embroidery, which perhaps explains the rich use of colour. Unusually for Burne-Jones, the subject is somewhat abstract - simply a beautiful girl seated on the petals of a beautiful flower. Aymer Vallance in the Easter Art Annual, 1900, wrote that 'The sketch for an embroidered bag is a delightful instance of pure ornament without the least literary taint.' The swirling petals and spontaneous handling recall the 1878 designs for sculptural relief, Sea Nymph and Wood Nymph sold in these Rooms, 15 December 2010, lot 34. Sea Nymph had in fact evolved from an 1875 design made for the William Morris fabric Mermaid, demonstrating the symbiosis of the different facets of Burne-Jones work.
Lotus flowers symbolise purity and spiritual awakening in the Buddhist tradition, and beauty, fertility and prosperity in Hinduism.
Sir Roy Strong has been Director of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum, and is a leading scholar of Elizabethan portraiture. With his late wife, theatre designer Julia Trevelyan Oman, he designed and created the remarkable Laskett Gardens at Much Birch, Herefordshire, which has been bequeathed to Perennial.
The Heart of the Lotus is a design for an embroidered evening bag. Unlike earlier embroidery designs from the 1870s, it was intended to be executed in solid, rather than outline, embroidery, which perhaps explains the rich use of colour. Unusually for Burne-Jones, the subject is somewhat abstract - simply a beautiful girl seated on the petals of a beautiful flower. Aymer Vallance in the Easter Art Annual, 1900, wrote that 'The sketch for an embroidered bag is a delightful instance of pure ornament without the least literary taint.' The swirling petals and spontaneous handling recall the 1878 designs for sculptural relief, Sea Nymph and Wood Nymph sold in these Rooms, 15 December 2010, lot 34. Sea Nymph had in fact evolved from an 1875 design made for the William Morris fabric Mermaid, demonstrating the symbiosis of the different facets of Burne-Jones work.
Lotus flowers symbolise purity and spiritual awakening in the Buddhist tradition, and beauty, fertility and prosperity in Hinduism.
Sir Roy Strong has been Director of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum, and is a leading scholar of Elizabethan portraiture. With his late wife, theatre designer Julia Trevelyan Oman, he designed and created the remarkable Laskett Gardens at Much Birch, Herefordshire, which has been bequeathed to Perennial.