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Lot Essay
The present drawing is dated to around 1875, when Philip would have been sixteen years old and studying at Marlborough College, the alma mater of his father’s great friend William Morris (1834-1896). Edward’s oldest child, Philip also became an artist and exhibited at the Royal Academy between the years 1898 and 1918 and at the Paris Salon of 1900. A portraitist and popular society figure, he also contributed works to shows at the New Gallery, the Dowdeswell Gallery and the Goupil Gallery. His father, his uncle Edward Poynter (1836-1919), his cousin Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), and the author Henry James (1843-1916), were among his sitters. For a character study, see Angela Thirkell, Three Houses, London, 1931, pp. 66-8.
The delicate technique of this drawing, which has previously been confused for silverpoint, suits the sensitivity of Philip’s character and the close relationship between sitter and artist. Burne-Jones’ biographer Fiona MacCarthy (The Last Pre-Raphaelite, London, 2012, p. 134) wrote that soon after Burne-Jones’ son Philip was born in 1861, his proud father related that their friends thought him ‘the prettiest boy known’ and that ‘Phil was to remain pretty, somewhat to his detriment’.
The delicate technique of this drawing, which has previously been confused for silverpoint, suits the sensitivity of Philip’s character and the close relationship between sitter and artist. Burne-Jones’ biographer Fiona MacCarthy (The Last Pre-Raphaelite, London, 2012, p. 134) wrote that soon after Burne-Jones’ son Philip was born in 1861, his proud father related that their friends thought him ‘the prettiest boy known’ and that ‘Phil was to remain pretty, somewhat to his detriment’.