Information

A drawing for a series of four paintings based on an episode from William Morris' cycle of epic poems, 'The Earthly Paradise'. The first series is currently in the collection of Lord Lloyd-Webber, the second is in Birmingham's collection.This design for Pygmalion is nearly identical with 1927P623, but rougher and reversed. Part of 1927P623 appears to have been traced from this study, such as the figure of Pygmalion himself, which would account for the reversal. However, it is very difficult to tell with certainty, which side of the tracing paper is the pencil drawing. In most of the traced studies for 'The Earthly Paradise' illustrations, the paper is drawn on one side only, and further refinements were made to the compositions by tracing on another sheet over the first drawing, rather than by the usual technique of transferring tracings (which requires the back of the drawing to be redrawn over). In this particular study, the technique seems to have been used for the figure of Pygmalion only, and the remainder of the design was merely copied.

  • Bequeathed by James Richardson Holliday, 1927.
  • © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

Makers

Association Artist Organisation
Artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones -

Exhibitions

Catalogue No. Venue Date(s)
Edward Burne-Jones: Pygmalion Series Centenary Exhibition
- Laing Art Gallery 2004-10-02 - 2005-01-16
 

Literature

Author(s) Date(s) Publisher Pages
City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: Catalogue of the Permanent Collection of Drawings
A E Whitley 1939 Bemrose & Sons Ltd, Derby p. 92
 
Hidden Burne-Jones, Works on paper by Edward Burne-Jones from Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
2007 Dan Giles, Ltd., London p. 78

Associated people

Name Type
Ovid Author
William Morris Author

Related work & resources

Discuss this work

Start a discussion about this work.

You need to login to discuss this work. Click here to login.

If you are not yet registered click here to become a member.
Find out more about membership