Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt., A.R.A. 1833-1898

'Here liesthe hoarded love, the key
To all the treasure that shall be;
Come fated hand the gift to take,
And smite this sleeping world awake.'
Poems by the Way, William Morris.

Charles Perrault's  tale of the Sleeping Beauty was first depicted in 1864 by Burne-Jones in a series of tiles for the painter Myles Birket Foster's Surrey home. In 1869 he returned to the subject of the Briar Rose when he was commissioned by William Graham to paint  three scenes from the story (Museo de Art de Ponce, Puerto Rico). The canvases depicted the armoured prince encountering the enchanted guards sleeping in a forest glade; the king surrounded by his slumbering courtiers; and the princess sleeping in her bed chamber. When Burne-Jones painted the later series of panels for Lord Faringdon (National Trust, Buscot Park) a further panel of servant girls was added and small panels of deserted rooms in the palace overgrown with wild roses. 

The present drawing is a study for the head of the girl sleeping at the foot of the princess' bed in the first version of The Rose Bower. In the painting the head is used for the princess' female attendant at the foot of the bed, her head bowed and resting in her folded arms. In the Faringdon version of The Rose Bower Burne-Jones changed the postion of the girl's head. Therefore this drawing relates to the earlier version rather than the later work.

This drawing belonged to the artist, patron and friend of Burne-Jones, George Howard the 9th Earl of Carlisle. Howard met Burne-Jones around 1865 and purchased a number of early works by the artist, aswell as commissioning another major series of pictures for his London house at Palace Green, depicting the story of Cupid and Psyche.