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20
STUDY of DRAPERY for THE GARDEN COURT
1889
SIR
EDWARD COLEY BURNE-JONES, Bt.
1833-1898
Blue
and black chalk, 15.3 x 25.2 (6 x 10)
Signed,
dated and inscribed, E B-J 1889 Study of drapery/for same
Provenance:
unknown.
Exhibited:
Fulham 1967 (29); Fulham 1983 (9)
Rear
view of a draped woman, seated on the ground with feet to
left and reclining to the right.
A
study for the sleeping attendant (third from left) in The
Garden Court, 1871-90 (125.1 x 231.1) in the Faringdon
Collection, Buscot Park, Berkshire.
The
Garden Court is the third of the four panels which tell the
story of The Briar Rose, the leg-end of the Sleeping
Beauty, a fairy tale by Charles Perrault (1628-1703) adapted
from a traditional French story. Six full size studies for
the painting are in Birmingham City Art Gallery (50'61) and
there are two further drawings for the sleeping attendants
(12.1 x 17.1 & 12.1 x 16.5) in the Tate Gallery, London.
A version, completed post-1895, worked up from a canvas he
had abandoned during the painting of the Buscot series, is
in Bristol City Art Gallery.
Burne-Jones
first illustrated the story of The Briar Rose in 1864
for a series of tiles for an overmantel at Birket Foster's
house, The Hill, Witley, Surrey, commissioned from Morris,
Marshall, Faulkner & Co., now in the Victoria and Albert
Museum.
Between
1871-3 he painted the "small Briar Rose" series
of three paintings, The Briar Wood, The Council
Chamber and The Rose Bower, for his patron William
Graham, now in the Museo de Arte, Ponce, Puerto Rico. Whilst
completing these he painted a second larger series, of four
paintings, which now included the painting of The Garden
Court. This series was finished by 1890 when it was purchased
by Alexander Henderson (1850-1934), later first Lord Faringdon,
to decorate a room at his newly acquired country house. Smaller
upright panels were then designed by Burne-Jones and text
provided by William Morris to complete the decorative scheme.
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