A gold drawing of a full-length male figure, seen from the front, pouring water from pitchers on his left shoulder and under his right arm, representing Aquarius. Signed "E/B/J". This is among a group of drawings referred to by the artist as being made "in tints of gold on coloured grounds" under 1896 in his autograph notebook containing a list of his works (held by the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge). A similarly-conceived figure of Aquarius, though leaning in the opposite direction, previously appeared in Burne-Jones's cartoon entitled 'Saturn' at Torre Abbey, Torquay. This is one of nine cartoons for a series of upright stained-glass panels (no longer surviving) designed by Burne-Jones and made by Morris & Company representing the Planets, which were commissioned by Angus Holden, Mayor of Bradford, in 1878 for the music room in his home 'Woodlands'. Burne-Jones began exhibiting works in this technique from 1890 onwards, many of which were head studies made, as F.G. Stephens described it, for the pure "rapture of colour-expression" ('Athenaeum', Feb 4 1899). Burne-Jones recorded admiring a Byzantine Gospel book with sheets which had been dipped in dye numerous times to produce a deep saturation of colour, and it appears that in these works he was striving to achieve the same effect. This study, along with other drawings by Burne-Jones, was purchased by Queen Alexandra from the Leicester Galleries in Leicester Square in 1904. It appears to have passed into the collection of Queen Alexandra's daughter, Princess Victoria of Wales, at some point, as it is listed in the probate valuation of her possessions in 1936. Purchased by Queen Alexandra from an exhibition of Burne-Jones drawings held at the Leicester Galleries in 1904