The idea for a major painting on the subject of the Sirens first occurred to Burne-Jones during the eventful year of 1870; his retrospective record of work for that year includes the entry "Designed the triptych of Troy and the Sirens and began the oil picture of the Mill, and made studies for the Hours, & Pygmalion." 1 There is a possible connection with the "lyrical drama" that Rossetti was considering at much the same time, under the title "The Doom of the Sirens," but this project was never realized. In his record for 1872 Burne-Jones refers again to the subject as one "which above all others I desire to paint," although a first design is not mentioned until 1880. It was another ten years before he began work in earnest, writing to his patron Frederick Leyland: "I am making a plan for a picture that will not be very big and will need to be very pretty. It is a sort of Siren-land — I don't know when or where — not Greek Sirens, but any sirens, anywhere, that lure men on to destruction. There will be a shore full of them, looking out from rocks and crannies in the rocks at a boat full of armed men, and the time will be sunset. The men shall look at the women and the women at the men, but what happens afterwards is more than I care to tell." 2 His immediate refer- ence may have been to the substantial sketch in bodycolor, 3 which must have been followed by two larger and more detailed designs in pastel, 4 before work was finally undertaken on the huge oil, destined never to be completed. The bevy of beautiful female figures provided the need (or the excuse) for many individual head studies, all dated 1895 or 1896, which rank among his most delicate pencil drawings. 5 Even among the many enigmatic juxtapositions of stilled female figure groups in which Burne-Jones delighted, The Sirens holds an exceptional place in its ghostly evocation of sexual tension, or what might better be called emotional dread. Both the designs and the large oil itself are painted in the idio- syncratic tones of deep blue, green, and yellow that reinforce the artist s expressed wish to convey in his pictures "a beauti- ful romantic dream of something that never was, never will be — in a light better than any light that ever shone — in a land no one can define or remember, only desire." 6 1. Edward Burne-Jones, "List of my designs drawings and pictures [etc.]," Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (transcript at Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery). 2. Memorials, vol. 2, p. 222. 3. Sotheby's, November 3, 1993, lot 201 (19 7/8 x 271/8 in.). 4. Harrison and Waters 1973, eolorpl. 41 (private collection), and South African National Gallery, Cape Town; both approximately 67 x 90 1/2 in. 5. Burlington Fine Arts Club 1899, nos. 31 (1896), 96 (1895), 109 (1895); Herron Museum of Art 1964, no. 30 (1895); Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University (1896). 6. This famous remark, from a letter to a friend (probably Helen Gaskell), was first quoted by Cosmo Monkhouse in his introduction to Burlington Fine Arts Club 1899, p. vii
Fitzwilliam Work List : 1870 ... designed the triptych of Troy, and the Sirens... 1872... This year I have 4 subjects which above all I desire to paint... The Sirens - small life size. The model for the ship appears in The Magazine of Art 1900 p. 162. Not following the Greek legends, in which there were three Sirens luring the sailors to their doom, Burne-Jones' painting has a more generalised encounter between the sexes. This, his most erotic of paintings in which a phallic ship enters the lagoon surrounded by beautiful maidens has an undeniable tension. The imagined date is unspecific containing maidens in classical drapery and Knight in medieval armour. As it was conceived in 1871 it reflected the recent experience with Maria Zambaco and this subject is a mediation upon the consequences of the relationship between the sexes. In the foreground there are helmets and a suggestion of a briar rose which gives a pessimistic view, Burne-Jones was being disingenuous writing to Frederick Leyland in 1891 " ... the men shall look at the women and the women at the men but what happens afterwards is more than I care to tell." William Morris was working on The Life and Death of Jason in 1866-7, in book XIV he describes the encounter between the Sirens and the Argonauts who promise eternal bliss, which the sailors reject and escape. Georgiana continues in Memorials Vol II p. 222 with a second quote from a letter to Leyland, in which he mentions two designs for The Sirens "One is that little black invention almost literally enlarged and the other is a variation upon it. As soon as we have settled which it shall be, or what changes would better it, I should begin gathering studies together for it, and meantime I am having a ship made." The letter shows an interesting relationship between Burne-Jones and his patrons, in that he cultivates them by allowing them an input into the development of his compositions.
Largely self-taught, Edward Burne-Jones became one of the most successful artists of the late Victorian era, producing not only paintings, but also book illustrations and designs for stained glass, tapestries, and mosaics. The subject of sirens—mythical female figures who lure men—intrigued Burne-Jones for many years, and he left this painting unfinished at his death in 1898. John Ringling purchased it in 1928 from the Holford Collection, an esteemed English collection dispersed at auction in that year.
1872 This year I have four subjects which above all others I desire to paint, and count my chief designs, for some years to come. The Chariot of Love - to be painted life size. The Vision of Britomart in 3 pictures also life size. The Sirens - small life size. and a picture of the beginning of the world - with Pan and Echo and sylvan gods, and a forest full of centaurs and a wild background of woods, mountains and rivers - upon these four subjects all my leisure time will be spent."