Nos. 109-112 [Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter] , together with a Day and Night now in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass., were painted as a set were painted for leyland about the time he moved to 49 Princes Gate (see no. 105 above [The Wine of Circe]). According to Lady Burne-Jones they were intended for his dining-room, but in 1892, the year of Leyland's death, they are recorded as hanging in the first of three interconnecting salons on the first floor, a room with a glass roof, furnished with divans, Indo-Portuguese cabinets and a harpsichord, and also containing pictures by Millais, Rossetti and Madox Brown. Posibly they were moved from the dining-room when Whistler transformed this into the famous Peacock Room in 1876-7. The Seasons are in the 'Aesthetic' taste of the time and, like so many items in this section, invite comparison with Albert Moore - in theme (Moore had exhibited a design of The Four Seasons at the RA in 1864), format, the deliberate colour scheme (Burne-Jones wrote of the series to Leyland, 'there is a plan throughout, of colour and expression and everything'), and the use of floral accessories. In fact three female figures by Moore hung on the landing outside the room which contains the Seasons in 1892. In adopting this style Burne-Jones may have been acting on the advice of Murray Marks, the dealer in works of art who was responsible for the décor at Princes Gate. The Poems beneath the figures are by William Morris.
Spring am I, too soft of heart Much to speak ere I depart. Ask the Summer tide to prove The abundance of my love. A poem the appears on a label attached to the base upon which the figure stands, written specially for the painting by William Morris.