Embroidered panel depicting Launcelot. Embroidered figure worked in wools on a linen ground. The figure has been painted directly onto the ground as a guide. There are holes in the background linen where it was attached to a frame. The embroidery has been started on the face and hair of the figure in cream, pink and brown wools. The figure is shown in full armour with his hands resting on the hilt of his sword which rests in its sheath. 'A figure of Launcelot, drawn in 1863 by Edward Burne-Jones upon the holland, and embroidered by G. B.J. It was intended for one of a set from the Morte d'Arthur, with which we hoped to decorate a room of our own. / Note made by G. Burne-Jones. Feb. 27 '09' (On a parchment label sewn to the bottom of the panel). Registered File number 1985/326. The idea of an embroidered frieze based on the Arthurian legend appears in a drawing at the Whitworth Art Gallery (D.73.1927 verso). The scheme was intended for Burne-Jones's home in 62 Great Russell Street. See T.118, 119, 121 for other figures in the series.
Sketchbook V&A E.1-1955 copy of illustration in Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages by Henry Shaw (London, 1843) Study of a knight in armour holding a pike. Burne-Jones may have been recalling the above image of this knight that he copied in 1861. The model for Launcelot was Ciamelli who appears in a number of works from c.1861 to c.1865