Information
Morgan-le-Fay was a sorceress in Arthurian legend, the half-sister of King Arthur whom she hated for the power and loyalty he commanded. Increasingly jealous of his strong moral character, she made several attempts to disrupt his life and reign.Here she stands in front of a loom on which she has woven an enchanted robe, designed to consume the body of King Arthur by fire. A flaming lamp is passed back and forth while she chants her spell. Her appearance with her loose hair, abandoned gestures and draped lepoard skin suggests a dangerous and bestial female sexuality. The green robe that Morgan is depticted wearing is actually a kimono. Japan re-opened to the West in 1854 after over two hundred years of seclusion. Sandys was one of several artists in the circle of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 -1882) who were fascinated by newly available Japanese art and objects. They often used Japanese items they had purchased in their paintings. Sandys met the model for Morgan-Le-Fay, Keomi, in a gypsy camp in Rome. Very little is known about her but she is believed to to have had an affair with the artist.
- Presented by the Trustees of the Feeney Charitable Fund, 1925.
- © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Makers
Association |
Artist |
Organisation |
Artist |
Frederick Sandys |
- |
Exhibitions
Catalogue No. |
Venue |
Date(s) |
- |
519 |
Royal Academy, London |
1864 - 1864 |
|
Art Loan Exhibition in aid of the Fund for the Restoration of the Church of St. Peter Mancroft |
165 |
St. Andrews Hall, Norwich |
- - - |
|
Winter Exhibition |
267 |
Royal Academy, London |
1905 - 1905 |
|
Paintings and Drawings of the 1860 Period |
62 |
National Gallery of British Art, London |
1923-04-27 - 1923-07-29 |
|
The Victorian Romantics |
94 |
Leicester Galleries, London |
1949 - 1949 |
|
Artists of Victoria's England |
51 |
Cummer Gallery of Art, Jacksonville, USA |
1965-02 - 1965-03 |
|
British Royal Family Exhibition |
108 |
Seibu Department Store, Tokyo |
1967-10-06 - 1967-10-18 |
|
Royal Academy of Arts Bicentenary Exhibition |
354 |
Royal Academy of Arts, London |
1968-12-14 - 1969-03-02 |
|
Frederick Sandys 1829-1904 |
58 |
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery |
1974-05-07 - 1974-07-14 |
58 |
Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield |
1974-07-27 - 1974-08-25 |
|
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England |
77 |
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington |
1995-03-09 - 1995-05-07 |
77 |
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
1995-05-27 - 1995-07-16 |
77 |
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware |
1995-08-11 - 1995-10-15 |
77 |
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas |
1995-11-04 - 1996-01-02 |
77 |
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia |
1996-01-23 - 1996-04-10 |
77 |
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery |
1996-05-25 - 1996-09-29 |
|
Literature
Author(s) |
Date(s) |
Publisher |
Pages |
Athenaeum |
F G Stephens |
14 May 1864 |
- |
p. 682 |
|
Art Journal |
|
June 1864 |
- |
p. 161 |
|
The English Pre-Raphaelite Painters |
Percy Bate |
1899 |
Bell. London |
pp. 60; repr. p. 61 |
|
Apollo |
Arthur B Chamberlain |
November 1925 |
- |
p. 259; repr. p. 259 |
|
City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham: Catalogue of Paintings |
|
1960 |
City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham |
- |
|
Victorian Painting |
Graham Reynolds |
1966 |
Studio Vista, London |
p. 70, 91; repr. pl. 47 |
|
Apollo |
Richard Ormond |
April 1968 |
- |
p. 251 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites |
Timothy Hilton |
1970 |
Thames and Hudson, London |
p. 202; repr. pl. 149 |
|
Frederick Sandys 1829-1904 |
|
1974 |
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery |
repr. pl. 29 |
|
The English Dreamers: A Collection of Pre-Raphaelite Paintings |
David Larkin |
1975 |
Pan Books, London |
repr. pl. 25 |
|
The English Pre-Raphaelites |
Andrea Rose |
1977 |
Phaidon, Oxford |
p. 13, repr. pl. 45 |
|
The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museseum of Art for December 1980 |
William Talbot |
December 1980 |
- |
p. 305; repr. fig. 13 |
|
Dark Age Sculpture |
Joanna Close-Brooks, Robert B K Stevenson |
1982 |
National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, Edinburgh |
p. 22 |
|
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England |
Stephen Wildman |
1995 |
Art Services International, Alexandria, Virginia |
pp. 240-1; repr. p. 1 |
|
Frederick Sandys 1829-1904: A Catalogue Raisonné |
|
2001 |
Antique Collectors' Club in association with Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service) |
No. 2.A.67, pp. 177-178; repr. pl. 18 |
Provenance
W. H. Clabburn, who sold it at Spelman's Norwich, 15 May 1879 (138); bt. by his son in law Edmund Meredith Crosse who sold it at Christies 8 May 1925 (73); bt. Sir Witworth Wallis on behalf of the Trustees of the Feeney Charitable Trust 1925. |
Associated people
Name |
Type |
Keomi |
Artist's model |
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