The Flower Book - Love in a Mist
1905
Accession number: 1953P5.1
Colour facsimile. Collotype print.
Information
A page from the facsimile edition of Burne-Jones' Flower Book, one of 38 watercolour designs reproduced by Henri Piazza et Cie, for the Fine Art Society, London in 1905.'Love in a Mist' is the common name of the fennel flower (Nigella damascena). In the Victorian language of flowers, 'love-in-a-mist' meant 'perplexity' (Pickston, The Language of Flowers, 1913), hence Burne-Jones's image of Cupid entangled in a web of mist. Burne-Jones has used similar imagery in two earlier drawings in the 'Orpheus' series, 'Across the Flames I & II' (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; 1873). An almost identical composition featuring the god of love again is found in the third predella of the 'Troy' polyptych, 'Love Overcoming Oblivion'.
- Purchased, 1953.
- © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Makers
| Association | Artist | Organisation |
|---|---|---|
| Artist | Sir Edward Burne-Jones | - |
Inscriptions
| Type | Position(s) | Method | Date(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A mist which does not rise from the earth but is made of heaven's blue, swirls round and round the struggling figure of a winged-man, who is Love himself, baffled and blinded by its folds. | ||||
| Label | - | Printed | - | description of the scene, written by the artist. printed by the artist, herein a facsimile |
Literature
| Author(s) | Date(s) | Publisher | Pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Flower Book | |||
| Edward Burne-Jones | 1994 | Taschen | Pl. I |
| Hidden Burne-Jones, Works on paper by Edward Burne-Jones from Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery | |||
| 2007 | Dan Giles, Ltd., London | p. 72 | |
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