Philippe Burty (1830-1890) was among the first major crit- ics to take a serious interest in English painting. He developed his ideas about the Pre-Raphaelite movement in an article that appeared in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in 1869, writing, "For the English school, it provided an opportunity for renewal which Realism was incapable of providing [for us]," but immediately qualifying his statement by adding, "It led first to some eccentricity, then to some weariness." In the same text Burty introduced Edward Burne-Jones to the French public, presenting him as the young champion of the move- ment. He mentioned a visit to the painter s studio in which he was able "to study his work more thoroughly, having already been struck by some works on other trips." He also reported on Burne-Jones's contribution to the 1869 exhibition of the Old Water- Colour Society. The Wine of Circe (fig. 24) he described as "a painting of the highest value, both for the impression it gives — which, though troubling, is more whole- some than certain parts of Baudelaire's Fleurs du Mai — and for its masterly execution. It is on this basis that this gifted artist must be judged." 6 The comparison with Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), which Burty so subtly underscores, is significant, for it highlights from the outset the importance of the artist's literary and poetic inspiration and its pictorial transcription while at the same time it establishes a direct link with the most productive aesthetic discourse in France at the time. Although to a lesser degree than in The Lament (cat. no. 44), in The Wine of Circe Burne-Jones seems to have come the closest to the Aesthetic movement championed by Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) and James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) in the 1860s. Indeed, in works such as these Burne-Jones subscribed to the necessity of freeing art from all documentary and narrative content. He continued to develop ideas along this line throughout his career. Such ideas, which have all too often been lumped under the heading "art for arts sake," were developed first in France by Theophile Gautier (1811-1872) and then by Baudelaire; and it was in France that Leighton and Whistler became acquainted with these concepts before introducing and developing them in England. There may have been direct contacts between the French and the English along these same lines. We know, for example, that Stephane Mallarme (1842-1898) resided in London in 1862-63. Mallarme met Algernon Charles Swinburne at that time and later contributed to the Athenaeum. Burne-Jones was sensitive to these speculations — which one could term pre- Symbolist — lending to them an intriguing personal resonance. The Wine of Circe already expressed an anxiety about the period combined with a critique of the materialism of modern life, and contributed to the elaboration of the image of woman as evil and bewitching. 7 These last two themes, which were at the center of the developing Symbolist culture in late-nineteenth-century Europe, were embraced by Burne-Jones from the very beginning of his career and were responsible in large measure for his popularity in France.
The intimacy that Burne-Jones had with Swinburne and Simeon Solomon had a considerable impact upon his attitude to the opposite sex. The freedom with which they discussed sexual matters of all kinds opened out the narrow experience of Burne-Jones's youth and marriage. Being married to a Methodist minister's daughter was reflected in the sweetness and innocence of his early paintings, but he became aware of his own sensual needs through his experience and discussions with his two friends and prepared him for the sexual relationship with Maria Zambaco. In parallel to this psychological shift he was applying a more sophisticated style of academic drawing which had been recommended by Ruskin and Watts. In the present painting both aspects are evident, the model for Circe was Maria Zambaco and the modelling shows a considerable advance on the early watercolours. The Art Journal critic recognised without accurate knowledge the underlying subversive nature of the painting when he wrote "This art has assuredly not the breath of life, the health o nature, or the simplicity of truth: it belongs to the realm of dreams, myths, nightmares, and other fantasms of diseased imagination". This description could equally be applied to Swinburne's "Poems and Ballads" of 1866. Society appeared to suspect that their values were subject, in the art of the younger generation, to a subterfuge and by subsequent developments in the Aesthetic Movement and its protagonists, became so outraged that took their revenge in the trials of Simeon Solomon (1873) and of Oscar Wilde (1895). "For “The Wine of Circe” By Edward Burne-Jones" By D G Rossetti 1870 DUSK-HAIRED and gold-robed o’er the golden wine She stoops, wherein, distilled of death and shame, Sink the black drops; while, lit with fragrant flame, Round her spread board the golden sunflowers shine. Doth Helios here with Hecaté combine (O Circe, thou their votaress!) to proclaim For these thy guests all rapture in Love’s name, Till pitiless Night give Day the countersign? Lords of their hour, they come. And by her knee Those cowering beasts, their equals heretofore, Wait; who with them in new equality To-night shall echo back the sea’s dull roar With a vain wail from passion’s tide-strown shore Where the disheveled seaweed hates the sea. Florence Boos accurately observes "Circe the temptress offers love, but unknown to its victims it is black as well as golden" which gives an insight into the hidden meaning that lies within the painting. ( "The Poetry of Dante G Rossetti: A critical reading and source study" pub 1976, Mouton & Co. The Hague.) It reflects Burne-Jones's feelings on his recent experience of the affair with Maria Zambaco.
Why sink those black locks in that golden wine, Shed from thy hand, O dusk-haired golden-robed dame, Where on the spread feast gleaned the fragrant flame And the dark-hearted golden sunflowers shine? Doth Helios here with Hecate combine, O Circe, thou their votaress! to proclaim For these thy guests all rapture in thy name, Till pitiless Night give Day the countersign? Lords of their hour, they come. And by thy knee Those Cowering beasts, their equals heretofore, Wait; who with them in new equality T0-night shall echo back the far-flung roar * Which past thy window sounds from the shown shore Where the dishevelled seaweed hates the sea. * or Which sounds where all spent things bestow the shore And the &c &c.
Scalands Gate / Robertsbridge Sunday / Dear Ned / I got your nice good note / this morning. Yesterday I / did the Circe Sonnet & / copy it overpage. I hope / you will only put it on / the frame if you think it / really expressive of the picture. / Else I will put it only in / my book. I have tried / in the first 4 lines to give / something of the picture's / colour, & in the last / 2 of its moral (!) Which / is the best form of these last? / Unless you are in a hurry / to send the picture away, / you might defer having it / copied on, as I may perhaps / do something to it yet. / Today we have suddenly / got completely snowed up / here - 6 inches deep; / so perhaps I may be / forced on doing some work. / but i'm so far from well / that I do not feel ? / in any result. / I will attend to what / you say about the frame. / Your affec: / DGR / Any Suggestions as / to sonnet will be / welcome from the / "master". / P.S. If you write a line, / say if you have seen / Swinburne & how he is, / & give him my love. / He is to come to town / tomorrow - Monday.
Ruskin wrote to Ellen heaton on 18 November 1863 that Burne-Jones was making him a 'drawing' of Circe 'poisoning the meat and goin all round the table like a cat', which was presumably this picture, although it never belonged to Ruskin. Early sketches for it (see no. 106) show that it was conceived in the 'intense' gothic style of the early watercolours: the witch inhabited a dark interior with massive pieces of furniture, and the sails of Ulysses' ship filled the window. By the time it was finished in 1869, however, it had grown much more classical. The ships had been moved back, light flooded the room, and the design was controlled less by the need to create atmosphere than by carefully balanced linear rhythms. Circe herself seems to owe something to the charioteer from the mausoleum (British Museum, no. 1037) which Burne-Jones copied in the mid-1860s (see no. 343) The development of the painting, particularly its colour scheme which might be described as a 'harmony in yellow', was no doubt influenced by the fact that at some stage, probably about 1868, it was re-commissioned by the Liverpool shipowner Frederick Leyland. This meant that it was destined for the famous 'Aesthetic' interior he was creating at 49 Princes Gate with the help of the dealer Murray Marks, Norman Shaw and (later) Whistler. It eventually hung on the staircase which, together with the entrance hall, was decorated in delicate shades of willow green. The dado beneath it had panels painted by Whistler, imitating aventurine lacquer with floral patterns in pink and white in the japanese taste (now in the Freer Gallery, Washington). When the picture was exhibited at the Old Water-Colour Society in 1869 it was fiercely attacked by the critics. The Art Journal found it 'supremely disagreeable' and 'altogether abhorrent to such minds as are not initiated in the sublime mystery of ugliness'. It is in fact one of the finest works of the period. It inspired a sonnet by Rossetti.