SIR EDWARD COLEY BURNE-JONES, BT., A.R.A., R.W.S. | Studies for the figure of Andromeda in The Doom Fulfilled (recto and verso)

Bought in London in the 1960s or 1970s by Ms Veronica Slater, by whom given to the present owner

This drawing is on a sheet probably taken from a sketchbook as it has a drawing on both sides. It has not been laid down but the paper is flat and there is no significant cockling. There is a very faint horizontal crease to the sheet in the centre but this is only visible upon close inspection. The sheet is a little stained and may benefit from a light clean. There is an area of moisture staining in the lower right corner and a few foxings marks. FRAME The sheet is contained in a wooden frame on a stand, glazed on both sides which allows the sheet to be viewed from both sides.
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The Doom Fulfilled (Southampton City Art Gallery) is one of a series of pictures, originally intended as part of an ambitious decorative scheme for the dining room of 4 Carlton Gardens, the home of the Conservative politician (later Prime-Minister) Arthur Balfour. It depicts Perseus, the hero of William Morris' 'The Doom of King Acrisius' from The Earthly Paradise, having released Princess Andromeda, attacking the sea-monster to which she had been offered as a sacrifice in punishment for her mother's vanity. The naked figure has been described as '..the callipygian figure of Andromeda, one of Burne-Jones's most limpid depictions of the female nude.' (Stephen Wildman and John Christian, Edward Burne-Jones - Victorian Artist-Dreamer, 1998, p.231) There are similar studies in sketchbooks at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and Birmingham City Art Gallery. It is likely that the present sheet was taken from one of these sketchbooks to be given as a gift to a friend or collector, perhaps by the artist himself or by his daughter Margaret or granddaughter Angela Thirkell who bequeathed the sketchbooks to the museums. A larger figure study for Andromeda (Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum) and the painting The Doom Fulfilled, are included in the major exhibition Edward Burne-Jones, Pre-Raphaelite Visionary, presently on view at Tate Britain until February 2019.