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6
STUDY of JOSEPH for THE ADORATION (THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM)
1887
SIR
EDWARD COLEY BURNE-JONES, Bt.
1833-1898
Black
and white chalk, bodycolour and gold, 33 x 15.2 (13 x 6)
Signed
and dated, E.B.J. 1887 (lower left)
Provenance:
Sir John Stirling-Maxwell, Bt.: Sir Charles Holmes: Cecil
French.
Exhibited:
probably Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of Drawings
and Studies by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Bt., 1899 (74),
lent by Sir John Stirling-Maxwell, Bt.; Fulham 1967 (31);
Fulham 1983 (8)
Literature:
L.Parry, William Morris Textiles, 1983, p.113.
A
cloaked and hooded bearded man facing to the right. His left
hand clutches his cloak around his neck, in his right he holds
a bundle of kindling. He is set against an abstract pastoral
background.
A
study for St. Joseph, the left hand figure in a design for
a Morris & Co. tapestry, The Adoration, of 1887,
executed for Exeter College, Oxford, which both Morris and
Burne-Jones had attended, and completed in 1890. The subject
was suggested by J.P.Lightfoot, the Rector of Exeter, in September
1886. The Victoria and Albert Museum holds Burne-Jones's sketch-book,
No. 15, (E.9-1955), which contains a number of preparatory
sketches, and a full-scale (240 x 375.9) photographic cartoon
(E.5012-1919).
The
foliate background was designed by Morris's principal designer
J.H.Dearle (1860-1932) which may account for the absence of
a specific setting in Burne-Jones's sketch. Ten versions were
woven between 1890 and 1907, each with a different border,
including those for Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and Eton College.
In
1888-91 Burne-Jones painted a watercolour replica of the tapestry
(243.8 x 365.76) entitled The Star of Bethlehem, commissioned
by his birthplace, Birmingham, where it remains in the City
Art Gallery. Although Burne-Jones's dating is not always reliable
it seems probable that this study, which is dated 1887, is
for the tapestry and not the replica watercolour.
Sir
Charles Holmes (1868-1936), who owned this drawing before
Cecil French, was a self-taught painter and art historian
whose distinguished career included the Directorships of the
National Portrait Gallery, 1909-16, and National Gallery,
1916-28. He was a great friend of Charles Ricketts and Charles
Shannon and acted as the business manager of Ricketts's Vale
Press from 1896.
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