.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This watercolour was one of a series of six that Burne-Jones painted in 1867, based on his designs for stained glass in the Green Dining Room at the South Kensington (now Victoria and Albert) Museum, which had been decorated by William Morris the previous year. The three windows each contain two lights in which girls dressed in white are seen gathering flowers, in a very early expression of Aestheticism. However, in the watercolours, which were probably executed directly on top of the stained-glass cartoons, the figures' dresses are strongly coloured.
Although some of the watercolours remained unfinished, they were framed together and collectively called The Garland. They were then acquired by Charles Augustus Howell, the Anglo-Portugese adventurer who plays such a sinister role in Pre-Raphaelite annals, no doubt being intended for one of the decorative schemes with which he was involved. Burne-Jones himself refers to them in his autograph work-record as 'unfinished and in the hands of that demon Howell'. At a later date they were split up and framed separately. They are now widely dispersed, another example was sold in these Rooms, 4 September 2014, The Neil Wilson Collection: A Romantic Vision, lot 45.
The present picture shows evidence of pentimenti around the figure's head, giving a fascinating insight into Burne-Jones’s working practice. Another of the series, more highly finished and now in the Cecil French Bequest, was included in the Arts Council of Great Britain's touring exhibition curated by John Christian, Burne-Jones - The Paintings, Graphic & Decorative Work of Sir Edward Burne-Jones, 1833-1898, 1975, no. 195, and again in the exhibition Burne-Jones and his Followers, circulated in Japan by the Tokyo Shimbun, 1987, no. 7 (illustrated in catalogue). Most of the other figures are also recorded; for details, see A.C. Sewter, loc. cit.
The picture is in a handsome tabernacle frame of a type that Agnew's, Burne-Jones's dealers, often gave his pictures in the 1890s.
Although some of the watercolours remained unfinished, they were framed together and collectively called The Garland. They were then acquired by Charles Augustus Howell, the Anglo-Portugese adventurer who plays such a sinister role in Pre-Raphaelite annals, no doubt being intended for one of the decorative schemes with which he was involved. Burne-Jones himself refers to them in his autograph work-record as 'unfinished and in the hands of that demon Howell'. At a later date they were split up and framed separately. They are now widely dispersed, another example was sold in these Rooms, 4 September 2014, The Neil Wilson Collection: A Romantic Vision, lot 45.
The present picture shows evidence of pentimenti around the figure's head, giving a fascinating insight into Burne-Jones’s working practice. Another of the series, more highly finished and now in the Cecil French Bequest, was included in the Arts Council of Great Britain's touring exhibition curated by John Christian, Burne-Jones - The Paintings, Graphic & Decorative Work of Sir Edward Burne-Jones, 1833-1898, 1975, no. 195, and again in the exhibition Burne-Jones and his Followers, circulated in Japan by the Tokyo Shimbun, 1987, no. 7 (illustrated in catalogue). Most of the other figures are also recorded; for details, see A.C. Sewter, loc. cit.
The picture is in a handsome tabernacle frame of a type that Agnew's, Burne-Jones's dealers, often gave his pictures in the 1890s.