The traditional Christian virtues of Hope, Charity, and Faith formed the subject of a three-light window by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner Sc Co. in the nave at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, for which Burne-Jones charged £15 each for cartoons in January 1871. 1 Each was turned into a large watercolor, probably being painted over the cartoon: Faith (Vancouver Art Gallery) and Hope (Dunedin Public Art Gallery) in 1871, Charity (private collection) in 1872. The artists preference for sets of four images led him to paint an addi- tional large watercolor, Temperance (private collection), also in 1872, which was later adapted as a cartoon for a window of 1876 in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge. In 1896 Burne-Jones received a commission for an oil paint- ing from Mrs. George Marston Whitin of Whitinsville, Massachusetts, and it seems that he may have intended to pro- vide a version of Aurora (Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane), on which, however, he was encountering difficulties in the early months of 1896. 2 According to W. G. Constable, Burne- Jones was so affected by the death of William Morris in October that he proposed instead the subject of Hope. 3 The painting, eventually sent early in 1897, is a nearly exact replica of the 1871 watercolor, in which Burne-Jones had retained the figure from the stained-glass cartoon but placed her in a prison cell, her hand raised to a mysterious blue veil or cloud sym- bolizing divine succor. Certain refinements were made in the oil, chiefly the reduction of the foreshortening in the fore- ground, the simplification of drapery folds, and the lengthen- ing of the rich tresses of hair whose soft knot contrasts with the cold iron ankle chain. In both images there are periwinkles on the floor — symbolic attributes for those condemned to death — and the figure holds a branch of apple blossom, for the hope of new life. Burne-Jones was pleased to hear that the picture had arrived safely, but less so when he learned that his very particular ideas on presentation were not being followed. "Did I tell you that Hope has got safely to America? For a long time I didn't know a word about it, and thought that as it had been bought with- out having been seen by the purchasers they were disappoint- ed with it, and I was going to write to ask them to send it back. But they're very pleased with it — and if I'm very careful we can live a whole summer on the price of it in case I don't sell this [Love Leading the Pilgrim, cat. no. 74]. They'll send the cheque soon. But they say they've hung it up without a glass, to see it better, because of reflections in it. They could manage that by sloping it in some way. I like a picture so much better under glass; its like a kind of aetherial varnish. It's wonderful to me how people don't see that a picture under glass is so much more beautiful than without it — they're so insensitive. But they must do as they like with it. They can hang it upside down if they will." 4 1. Sewter 1974-75, vol. 2, p. 146. 2. Lago 1981, p. 90 (entry for February 6, 1896). 3. See W. G. Constable, "'Hope' by Edward Burne-Jones," Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), vol. 39 (February 1941), pp. 12-14. 4. Lago 1981, p. 138 (entry for March 18, 1897).