Lot Essay
A study for The Sirens (Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida), a picutre designed in 1870 but still not finished at Burne-Jones's death twenty-eight years later. The drawing can be dated to the late 1880s when the artist had a phase of using this particular type of chalk and paper.
T.M. Rooke was Burne-Jones's studio assistant from 1869. According to the inscription in his hand, he was given the drawing by the executors either of Burne-Jones himself or of his son Philip (died 1926). Two more studies for The Sirens with the same provenance were in the exhibition cited above (nos. 19-20)
T.M. Rooke was Burne-Jones's studio assistant from 1869. According to the inscription in his hand, he was given the drawing by the executors either of Burne-Jones himself or of his son Philip (died 1926). Two more studies for The Sirens with the same provenance were in the exhibition cited above (nos. 19-20)