Among Burne-Jones's later oil paintings are a number of half- or three-quarter-length female figures with no connection to previous designs for stained glass. Flamma Ves talis (private collection), shown at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1886, is a pensive, idealized portrait of his daughter, Margaret, in the guise of one of the vestal virgins of Rome. When it was exhibited at the New Gallery in 1894, Vespertina Quies was seen by the critic Frederic Stephens as "a sort of pendant" to Flamma Vestalis y both figures being dressed in deep, rich blue. Stephens identified the background as "the empty courtyard of a convent," suggesting that the young woman, contemplative- ly fingering her ring, might be about to take the veil as a nun, thereby finding "that inner peace which belongs to a pure soul in harmony with itself." 1 Burne-Jones gave no specific accom- panying narrative; the title means simply "Quiet of the Evening," though the enigmatic nature of the picture inevitably encourages the same sort of speculation about its meaning as such clear precedents as the Mona Lisa. The sitter was Bessie Keene, a favorite model, as her mother had been before her. Graham Robertson recalled that Burne- Jones "used Bessie's face much in his later work — she suc- ceeded her mother as chief 'angel' and 'nymph' — and he produced one beautiful portrait of her; actually a portrait, though he called the picture Vespertina Quies" 2 Progress on the canvas was watched by the young Maud Beddington, whose mother had been a neighbor of Burne-Jones in Bennett's Hill, Birmingham. "He began by drawing the figure in raw umber," she remembered. "I think that was done before I came. Then he modelled the face in white and raw umber, lightly putting a little red on the lips, nostrils, and eyes — the blue of the frock and all the strong colours were painted in sweeping strokes of full colour. He used a mixture of spike oil and turpentine as a medium. He used flat brushes to keep his canvas smooth." 3 1. Athenaeum, May 12, 1894, p. 619. 2. Robertson 1931, p. 282. 3. Quoted in Harrison and Waters 1973, p. 158.