The present drawing was part of a set of embroidery designs, which Edward Burne-Jones undertook for John Ruskin's new house in the Wye valley during the summer of 1863.(1) Burne-Jones, alarmed at Ruskin's plans to escape the restrictions of life with his parents and build a house at Bonneville in the Savoy Mountains, had suggested the commission.(2) The designs were based upon Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, a subject that Burne-Jones had already used for a set of designs for figure tiles. These were altered and enlarged for the new designs. Burne-Jones wrote to Ruskin in the autumn of 1863: ..As far as I can calculate it will take nearly a year to get all the figures ready. They are about fourteen or fifteen in number; but only half the work; for scrolls, roses, daisies and birds will more than double it- the design I think you will like... All the pictures seem small matters till I can get the designs finished... The ground thereof will be green cloth or serge, and the fence of roses will run along behind the figures about half way up them: these roses to be cabbage and dog red and white. All the ground will be powdered with daisies- only where Dido, Hypsiphile (sic) and Medea and Ariadne come there will be sea instead of grass and shells instead of daisies. First will come Chaucer looking very frightened according to the poem, and inditing the poem with a thrush on his shoulder- then comes Love a little angry, bringing Alcestis. Chaucer in black, Love in red and white and Alcestis in green- then a tree, and a vision of ladies begins, all to have scrolls with their name and life and death written above their heads. The ladies are to be in uniforms of blue and white and red and white alternately, and at the end of all- to come by your fireplace, will be Edward the third and Philippa sitting looking on. So on one side of your fireplace will be Chaucer beginning the subject, and on the other side of it the king and queen.(3) 1864, Edward hard at work on the cartoons for Chaucer's `Good Women' one of which (Hypsipyle) was actually began. Morris had not yet thought of weaving tapestry, but he had studied the kind of needlework that goes by the name, and had taught his wife and me what stitches to use and how to place them: my own experience was that his instructions could not be improved upon and that disaster followed their neglect.(4) Other designs for the scheme are in The William Morris Gallery (Thisbe), The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Hypsipyle and Medea), Birmingham City Art Gallery (four drapery studies), Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (three drapery studies), Ruskin Gallery, Isle of Wight (seated figure of Chaucer).(5) 1. For a full account of the scheme see A. R. Dufty, Morris Embroideries, The Prototypes, The Society of Antiquaries, London 1985, pages 29-30 and 48, illustrations pages XXII-XXV 2. John Gordon Christian, Burne-Jones, The Arts Council of Great Britain, exhibition catalogue 1975, page 39 number 82 footnote 3. Martin Harrison and Bill Waters, Burne-Jones, London 1973, page 60 4. Georgina Burne-Jones, Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones, London 1904, Volume 1, pages 269 and 273. 5. See also Fortunee de Lisle, Burne-Jones, London 1904, page 192: A screen worked by Mrs. Morris from these designs (The Legend of Good Women) is in the possession of the Earl of Carlisle. Three of the designs("Cleopatra", "Philomela", and "Thisbe") belong to Mrs.Severn.
The model for the drawing was Jane Morris.