fajrdrako | Burne-Jones at the National Gallery, Ottawa... (Reply)

A rainy Sunday:

explodedteabag and I went to the National Gallery of Canada to see the current exhibit on Sir Edward Burne-Jones, who is one of my favourite artists.

It isn't a Special Exhibit. It's nothing like the big exhibit on Waterhouse that I saw in Montreal in February. It isn't a travelling exhibit: most of the art there already belongs to the National Gallery of Canada or to people who live in Ottawa - one of whom is Burne-Jones great-grandson.

So it's small, and the pictures are small, and almost all of it is in black and white. It's very personal: sketches of his family, caricatures of himself, studies for bigger works. And it's remarkable. It's things I didn't know existed and will probably never see anywhere else.

Oscar Wilde quoted Burne-Jones as saying, "The more materialistic society becomes, the more Angels I will paint; their wings are my protest in favour of the immortality of the soul." I'm not sure the quote doesn't sound as much as if it comes from Wilde as Burne-Jones, but it does give a clue as to why I like Burne-Jones' art so very much.

Study for the Drapery for an Angel of the Annunciation 1875 - I would guess the painting referred to is this one, now in Liverpool. Very beautiful, the most exquisitely rendered of the show.
Nude Study for a Female Hill Fairy for 'The Sleep of King Arthur in Avalon' c. 1883. I wasn't familiar with this painting, which the exhibit cited as one of his most major paitings. Turns out it is - or was - in Puerto Rico. The fairies seem to have been removed by the time he got to the final conception, or clothed and changed beyond recognition. The fairly was utterly beautiful. The explanation said "the painting was a triptych with nude male figures on one side and nude female figures on the other." They quoted Burne-Jones himself as saying:
...Fairies in the mountains listening to the music the Queens make in Avalon have also been designed - he-fairies and she-fairies, looking ecstatic and silly an very uncombed.
Seated Male Nude: Study for an Angel in 'The Morning of the Resurrection' 1882. I think all Burne-Jones' sexier works is appearing here - I can't recall ever seeing a nude by him before. That's where the "Private Collection" thing comes in, I guess. Though surely even Victorian museums displayed nudes.
The Rising of Lazarus 1877, a design for the windows of St. John of Beverley, Whitton, Nottinghamshire. With the decription of this piece of art I learned the phrase "narrative predella" - drawings depicting a saint's life in detail around the bottom of an altar. This picture had come colour on it, especially on Jesus' halo, added in chalk some years after the drawing was done. It was quite large.
A photo of Burne-Jones himself, by H & R Styles, 34 Kensington High Street, West London. He's with his granddaughter Angela, in May, 1892. His wife said he loved being with children, especially his grandchildren, because they appealed to "the child that was always in himself".
A self-caricature of Burne-Jones in court dress, dated June 4, 1894. Gladstone gave him a baronetcy and Burne-Jones found the notion rather ridiculous. But he dressed up for court anyway. Seems he liked doing little caricatures parodying himself.
H.H. the Tuan Muda of Sarawak Walking Down to Bathe 1897. A lovely line-drawing of the seventeen-year-old Bertram Brooke walking down a pier. I never heard of Bertram Brooke: I am slightly boggled. But Burne-Jones' drawing is full of affectionate humour.
The Tower of Brass on Danae, after Ruskin, 1888. The description explained how Burne-Jones and his Pre-Raphaelite friends liked to make fun of Sir Joshua Reynolds and his neo-classicism, and the picture is a spoof. They liked to call him "Sir Sloshua".
A drawing of Clare, the artist's granddaughter. This one one of the only pictures with colour on it: he'd water-coloured it. Clare in the picture is cute thing about a year old, in a blue dress and bonnet, her back to the artist. He has a note on it for her to remember her "Bapappa".
Topsy on a Pony in Iceland 1870. Topsy was William Morris, who, it seems, went to Iceland in 1871, so either the drawing was in anticipation, or the date written on it was wrong. It's a cute picture, and the text beside it explained how Morris loved the pony, brought it back to England with him, and gave it to his daughter. Seems Burne-Jones liked doing these cute sketches of William Morris: here's a similar one in Leicester. And as an interesting postscript, it seems that William Morris's Icelandic Diary was influential on Tolkien. Cool. Morris taught himself Icelandic for the trip.
The Resurrection September 1881. Cartoon for stained glass window for the parish church of St. Margaret, Hampton-on-Sea, Norfolk.
Book plate for Frances Horner, 1891-96. Beautiful cherubs or youths holding up a banner with her monogram. Damn, I'd like a bookplate like that.
Study for Sponsa de Libano, design for an embroidery from The Song of Solomon. The finished work is in Liverpool.
Ethel Burdell-Burgess (study for the Central Figure in 'The Garden Court of the Briar Rose Series') 1888. You can see The Briar Rose series here. The story was a version of "Sleeping Beauty". Ethel was a beautiful woman whom he liked to draw, and she was the model for one - or several - of the figures here. This was my second-favourite piece in the exhibit, the first being the pretty She-Fairy. The text explained how Burne-Jones, in doing studies of female heads like this, used the technique and style of Leonardo da Vinci. (I like his head studies, too.)
St. Michael and the Dragon 1875. This was done in an interesting cinquefoil shape. The text said that the stained glass window for which this was done, is the closest of Burne-Jones' works to Ottawa - in Geneseo, in upstate New York. Really? Where is Geneseo? Near Rochester, apparently. Who knew?

The text says there are examples of Burne-Jones stained glass also in Montreal. (Where, I wonder?) And Calcutta.
Head of a Girl, profile to the left, 1879. This is followed by: Head of a Girl, turned slightly to the left, 1879. More studies of heads of lovely young women.
Georgiana Burne-Jones reclining on the Ground 1862. A study of his wife.
Studies for Stained Glass - the Virgin 1862.
Nude Study for Venus in 'The Passing of Venus and Nude study apparently for a Maiden in 'The Passing of Venus' 1876. I found these less interesting, though I was interested to see that the painting they were done for is an illustration of Petrarch's Trionfi.
Study for the Head of Fortune for 'The Wheel of Fortune' 1877-83. Apparently the original is in the Musée d-Orsay, in Paris. Maybe I'll be able to see it in October.
Gethsemene 1862-4. A little wood engraving that I would never have recognized as Burne-Jones' work.
A book: The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. F.S. Ellis, published by Morris and Burne-Jones with their Kelmscott Press in 1896. It's one of 425 extant paper copies. The page was turned to "The Parlement of Foules - The Poem".
Engraving in The Summer Snow 1863. This was the engraver's proof for an illustration of a poem published in "Good Words".

I was surprised and delighted how man of these works were light, informal, poking fun at himself and the world - not the mental image I'd had of Burne-Jones, but totally endearing.