Lot Essay
Burne-Jones had a passion for re-interpreting visual ideas over long periods of time, often on a very different scale and in different media and styles. Cupid's Hunting Ground is no exception. The subject of Cupid shooting arrows at his victims was first given shape in 1861 as part of a larger composition in which the god of love is seen standing on a chariot bearing Venus, his mother. This occurs both as a design for a set of tiles to be carried out by the Morris firm and on a tapestry seen in the background of a watercolour painted that year, Laus Veneris (private collection). The famous large oil version of this watercolour, exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1878 (Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle), repeats the motif in the background, but the design was soon to be divided up and treated in two separate paintings, The Passing of Venus and Cupid's Hunting Ground. Only at the very end of Burne-Jones's life were the parts reunited. One of the last entries in his autograph record work-record, written shortly before his death in 1898, is a design for tapestry, again to be made by Morris & Co., in which he reverts to the original composition evolved thirty-seven years earlier.
Cupid's Hunting Ground itself exists in several versions. Two date from 1880, a monochrome painting and a painted and gilt gesso relief. The painting was bought by Constantine Ionides, the autocratic head of the Anglo-Greek community in London, and is now with the rest of his collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum; the gesso panel, one of a number of essays in relief sculpture that Burne-Jones made about this time, is in the Bancroft Collection at Wilmington, Delaware. A third version, a watercolour dating from 1885 and described by the artist in his work record as being 'in gold and faint colours', is in the Art Institute, Chicago.
The present picture is a long lost fourth version, and the only one to remain in private hands. Its existence was known since it was included in the memorial exhibition of Burne-Jones's drawings held at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1899, and there can be no doubt about its identity since an old exhibition label has been preserved on the back. The lender was Mrs. Coronio, the younger sister of Constantine Ionides, who owned the monochrome painting of 1880.
There were five Ionides siblings, three brothers and two sisters. They were the children of Alexander Ionides, a wealthy financier who had settled in England in the 1820s to escape Turkish persecution; and they all played a notable part in the annals of Victorian art. Aglaia, who had married Theodore Coronio, a businessman, in 1855, was an extrovert, kind-hearted and rather bossy woman who loved to hover round artists' studios. She became a confidante of William Morris, her exact contemporary, and she had a reputation for helping artists with the dresses worn by their models. Rossetti, Burne-Jones and G.F. Watts all paid tribute to her skill in this field. She herself sat to Rossetti, Watts and Legros, and she is said to be one of the dancing figures in The Mill, the most important work by Burne-Jones in the Constantine Ionides collection, appearing with Marie Spartali, the well-known Pre-Raphaelite artist and model, and Maria Zambaco, who conducted a tempestuous affair with Burne-Jones in the late 1860s. These young women, a triumvirate of talent and beauty and all close friends if not actually related, were known in their circle as the Three Graces.
In recent years Christie's has handled a number of items associated with Aglaia Coronio: her portrait by Watts (who painted no fewer than five generations of Ionides), a chalk drawing of her daughter Calliope by Rossetti, and an album of Burne-Jones drawings, many of them relating to model's dresses, which she almost certainly owned. The watercolour of Cupid's Hunting Ground is an interesting addition to this group. Its exact date is unknown, but it was presumably made because Aglaia particularly liked her brother's picture, and wanted a version for herself. Burne-Jones has responded by giving a brilliant display of his linear virtuosity, handling the figures in terms of a dazzling series of arabesques etched in gold paint on the dark-blue ground. The result is a fine and jewel-like example of his work, with a particulary interesting provenance.
Cupid's Hunting Ground itself exists in several versions. Two date from 1880, a monochrome painting and a painted and gilt gesso relief. The painting was bought by Constantine Ionides, the autocratic head of the Anglo-Greek community in London, and is now with the rest of his collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum; the gesso panel, one of a number of essays in relief sculpture that Burne-Jones made about this time, is in the Bancroft Collection at Wilmington, Delaware. A third version, a watercolour dating from 1885 and described by the artist in his work record as being 'in gold and faint colours', is in the Art Institute, Chicago.
The present picture is a long lost fourth version, and the only one to remain in private hands. Its existence was known since it was included in the memorial exhibition of Burne-Jones's drawings held at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1899, and there can be no doubt about its identity since an old exhibition label has been preserved on the back. The lender was Mrs. Coronio, the younger sister of Constantine Ionides, who owned the monochrome painting of 1880.
There were five Ionides siblings, three brothers and two sisters. They were the children of Alexander Ionides, a wealthy financier who had settled in England in the 1820s to escape Turkish persecution; and they all played a notable part in the annals of Victorian art. Aglaia, who had married Theodore Coronio, a businessman, in 1855, was an extrovert, kind-hearted and rather bossy woman who loved to hover round artists' studios. She became a confidante of William Morris, her exact contemporary, and she had a reputation for helping artists with the dresses worn by their models. Rossetti, Burne-Jones and G.F. Watts all paid tribute to her skill in this field. She herself sat to Rossetti, Watts and Legros, and she is said to be one of the dancing figures in The Mill, the most important work by Burne-Jones in the Constantine Ionides collection, appearing with Marie Spartali, the well-known Pre-Raphaelite artist and model, and Maria Zambaco, who conducted a tempestuous affair with Burne-Jones in the late 1860s. These young women, a triumvirate of talent and beauty and all close friends if not actually related, were known in their circle as the Three Graces.
In recent years Christie's has handled a number of items associated with Aglaia Coronio: her portrait by Watts (who painted no fewer than five generations of Ionides), a chalk drawing of her daughter Calliope by Rossetti, and an album of Burne-Jones drawings, many of them relating to model's dresses, which she almost certainly owned. The watercolour of Cupid's Hunting Ground is an interesting addition to this group. Its exact date is unknown, but it was presumably made because Aglaia particularly liked her brother's picture, and wanted a version for herself. Burne-Jones has responded by giving a brilliant display of his linear virtuosity, handling the figures in terms of a dazzling series of arabesques etched in gold paint on the dark-blue ground. The result is a fine and jewel-like example of his work, with a particulary interesting provenance.