A Fan in Sanguine

‘Dear Lane, — I have done a fan that might suit you — it is a company of several figures in a landscape, and is all done in one colour except the border which is in another — the principal colour is red — the sanguine colour of old drawings, it could be reproduced at little expense, and printed in the two colours it is painted in if you cared. I think it's one of my best fans, and will send it on if you care to have it — it would cost £10.

‘I feel sure that this is the most practical way of painting fans that are to be reproduced, and it in no way makes them lose value in themselves, as they are painted on silk in a pretty tone of red, and in the case of printing them, they too, could be printed on silk, as has often been done. Should you care to have a book of fans to bring out, say, at Christmas, I should be pleased to do them if I were to do five say, you already have some of your own to fill up and I am sure they would please people who care for the sort of thing I do — they could have as a literary accompaniment a verse here and there from the Fêtes Galantes, and no copyrights would be required.’ (letter from Conder to John Lane, Dornoch, 3 August 1896 quoted in F. Gibson, op. cit., pp.37-8)

Elgar’s one act ballet The Sanguine Fan (op.81), commissioned by his friend Lady Alice Stuart-Wortley (‘Windflower’) in January 1917 to raise money for the war charities, was inspired by the scene of Pan and Echo on Conder’s fan.