The exhibition catalogue for the 1899 Burlington Fine Arts Club exhibition suggests that the date of 1865 (date of first version-in watercolour-Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston) is an error on the artist's part. Burne-Jones is known to have incorrectly labelled and dated some of his drawings, usually in late preparation for an imminent exhibition. The catalogue entry suggests that it is in fact a study for the second version in oil of the 'Chant d'Amour', begun in about 1868 and completed in 1877 now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. There is a related red chalk drawing of a Seraph (there ascribed to1868) in the collection of the School of Art Gallery and Museum at the University of Aberystwyth (see pp. 136-7, fig. 186 in Colin Cruise, 'Pre-Raphaelite Drawing', Thames and Hudson, 2011, on occasion of exhibition 'Poetry of Drawing: Pre-Raphaelite Designs, Studies and Watercolours' at Birmingham Museum and Art Glalaery and ARt Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2011). Gere 1994
The 'Chant d'Amour' is a Giorgionesque composition of figures in a landscape, of which there is a watercolour in the Boston Museum and a larger version in oil in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (Tate Exh., 1984, no. 149). A knight in armour is seated on the left, listening to a lady playing on a portable organ, the bellows of which are blown by the kneeling figure of Love. The watercolour was painted in 1865, and the larger version completed in 1877. A note by Cecil French transcribed in the departmental register points out that the date, though inscribed by the artist himself, is incorrect, and that this is a study for the figure in the later version. In the 1865 watercolour the head is at a different angle, and is blindfolded and wearing a wreath of flowers. According to Burne Jones's own MS record of his work (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) the larger version was begun in 1868. The date on the drawing must have been added from memory.
Dated by the artist in error.It is a study for the second picture of the Chant d'Amour, which was begun about 1868.