Wednesday morning 1893 / I was good about Sunday wasn't O - because / now I would give something not to go - / all the pleasure of it of course meant you - / but you were right, & I loved you to want to / stay - thats funny of me, but I did - / of course I want to praise me, but what / is the use of me behaving so finely if / such conduct isnt instantly praised - / - I suppose I must go - it doesn't matter / either on Saturday or before I go there on / Sunday I shall see you (I pray) & / then anything will be endurable. / Yes, tes you were quite right - how I shall / hate it though, all evening though I / shall be thinking "She was to have been / here". / the time will come, a few years hence, when / Amy will make up. to you and be a / mighty comfort, stay & strength in your / life - & when it comes about remember I / prophesied of it - I could think / any good of her, & I think better & better / the more I know her - of mind & nature / too - / oh I will take care, be sure - I have so / much to live for - besides I am used / to taking care - that is why I am alive / now - for many years ago I was due to / be in the other country - & I seem to / have outlived former dangers - once / I nearly lost one lung entirely - but it / healed and I am stronger now than / ever I was but to take the silly care is / what I am used to - all this week / I shall stay in & go early to bed - / at ten always - & there is no drain on / my strength at all - I can give myself / wholly to my work, & you are always / by me - & watch everything I do, & I / turn to speak to you when I like. / for of course imagining doesn't end a / my work - I go on always, & you are / enthroned in that strange land, which is / more true than the real earth - / I know that longing to cry in you - & / have seen it often - & heard you try / to cry - try to simulate it even hoping it / would bring it on - I had noticed that - / I hope you cried last night - / and that's like me - oh conceit of me / to put myself near you for a moment - / bur I think I could count the times / when I have cried since I grew up - / so far they are - about half a dozen / times in twenty years - it would / do one good I know if only it / would come, & you are right to call it / rain - I feel tearful enough / often, it is some physical abstraction / & the rain doesn't come - and / when I have looked at your eyes, (a / thing that I have done once or twice) / I have sometimes said to myself / "the home of woe, without a tear". / how ni=ce to be like you in something / & there was the other resemblance we / found out yesterday, which was very / funny, that we dont like to kiss / people - only the tops of their heads / or cheeks - / and we laugh at the same things - / & would cry at the same things if only / we could cry. there must be / a great deal of sympathy between us / if we would confess it / dear, the end of our first year's / friendship is coming near - my heart / is in one cry of benediction in you, one / fervent fire of thanks to God for / bringing such beauty & perfection into / my life, & letting me see it - life / is noble, death will be easier because / of you - & if tears ?ing come I / could cry now, innocent loving tears / only to think of you. / 1893 2 / we had a solemn time yesterday & such / times are so good for us both - many a time / goes in bright laughter, we won't grudge i if / now & then the moments are very serious - / hoe truthful you are - in a thousand / little things I see it, and every time I ? / it my life grows solid & firm, my hands / hold reality and my feet feel firmly / planted - so I came away in an ecstasy / of exaltation that is common enough / now to me when I leave you. for I dont / leave really - or I take you with me - / some spiritual Beauty that you create / hovers about me and goes with me. / What a lovely sentence that is / in your letter "the touch of that makes / a man & woman isolated & supreme / to one another" could any words that / ever were said say it better / So it is that I have found my / life's harmony - something that sets all / to music - you said lately something / had gone from you that toned & coloured / life - how different are our faults / yours & mine - for is it that very thing / that has come into my life - as if after / a gray day the sun broke through & lighted / up unnoticed valleys & woods & sparkled / in distant windows & set everything aglow. / So it is with me & I move about in a / strange earth - all things are familiar but / all are touched with some magic - & / cabmen seem heroic - when the cabman / took me to you yesterday I had half / a mind to ask him if he was tired / & if his family was well & if he / was going anywhere from Saturday till / Monday - poor cabby - ? I needed / pity Cabby for not making visits - dont / I too hate them - / but I am glad you are gone to-day - at least / for 3 or 4 days you will have no house - / - keeping to do, & a sort of rest it must / be. / are you sure I dont come to see you too / much? of course I knew things were only / said in fun yesterday - but are you sure / I shouldn't like to grow a nuisance to / him - are you sure it was only fun. / You would know - I do come very / often - it seems very seldom to me, & / when there is a day when I didnt come I / feel so virtuous that I am intolerable / with spiritual pride. - I will make / a portrait of you & do a very noble / thing, give it to him for his very own. / And go to ? by & bye - there / changes are good for you - are rest from / ? bothers at least - drink in the / air & rest, & lie long a-bed, and / read gently & sometimes draw - for / that is a most soothing thing - & play / & sing & feel surrounded with love / & have a thought of pity for the / unlucky & the unloved - ah pity / is never out of you I think for a / moment. / Phil comes back to me on Friday - bur for / a night only - then he goes to Terling / till Monday - bless him up & down / Goodbye. Oh you -
The archive, which has remained with May Gaskell’s descendants, consists of more than 200 letters dating from 1892 up to the year of Burne-Jones’s death: three albums of intimate letters from the artist to Mrs Gaskell; two albums of illustrated letters to Mrs Gaskell and her daughter, Daphne; and other ephemera such as the artist’s brushes which he used when painting his famous portrait of Amy Gaskell. The letters are one of the most endearing records of all Burne-Jones’s friendships. They recount both his innermost thoughts and feelings and feature a cast of humorous characters, fictitious and real. They have been acquired for £200,000 with major support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF); the Art Fund; the Arts Council England/Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund; the Friends of the National Libraries; and numerous private donations. Two of the albums are on display in the Museum for its Great British Drawings exhibition where they can be seen until 31 August. They will now enter the Ashmolean’s permanent collection. Following conservation, they will be made available as an invaluable resource to students and scholars of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and they will be published online. The letters will add to the collection of drawings by Burne-Jones bequeathed to the Ashmolean in 1939 by Mrs Gaskell, forming one of the richest Pre-Raphaelite archives in the country. Many of the letters were published by Josceline Dimbleby, May Gaskell’s great-granddaughter, in her acclaimed book, A Profound Secret (2004), which recounts the author’s research into her family’s history. On the occasion of this major acquisition, Josceline Dimbleby will give a Saturday Talk on 8 August at the Ashmolean, in conversation with the curator of Great British Drawings, Colin Harrison. Josceline Dimbleby says: "My discovery of so many intimate and often witty letters from Burne-Jones to my great grandmother May Gaskell, forgotten for decades in an old chest of drawers, was one of the most exciting moments in my life, together with finding, wrapped in old paper and string at the back of one drawer, the paintbrushes he used for his famous portrait of my doomed great aunt Amy Gaskell, still with paint sticking to them. The letters revealed a passion that made it hard to think of this friendship as platonic and I spent a fascinating and happy three years piecing together and writing the story of what was A Profound Secret, feeling that I was getting to know my ancestors, and a very private side of Burne- Jones." Burne- Jones met May Gaskell in 1892, and she became the last in the succession of women with whom he enjoyed especially close, but platonic, friendships. She was the wife of a dull cavalry officer, and, in an unfulfilling marriage, she corresponded with Burne- Jones up to five times a day. The letters include a series of cartoon-like tales featuring characters such as the ‘fat lady’ and the artist himself, caught in mishap and misadventure. Beneath the surface lies the black humour endemic to Burne-Jones’s frequent moods of depression and insecurity. There is, for example, a superb sequence of caricatures of the artist suffering from flu. In the course of their friendship, Burne-Jones became dependent on May, confessing to her that she ‘reached the well of loneliness that is in me’. He also sent whimsical letters to the infant Daphne Gaskell (1887–1966). She was only six when she met Burne-Jones and he took an affectionate and fatherly interest in her, his own children having grown up. His letters to Daphne, written in phonetic spelling, include birds and animals familiar from his other letters to children, and several fantastic inventions such as the ‘Phlumbudge’ and ‘Flapdabble’. The archive also includes some letters to May’s elder daughter, Amy (1874–1910), whom Burne-Jones painted in 1893 in one of the greatest Pre-Raphaelite portraits (collection of Lord Lloyd-Webber). Colin Harrison, Senior Curator of European Art, Ashmolean Museum, says: "May Gaskell was Burne- Jones’s closest friend in his last years. He gave her a selection of his finest drawings, which she in turn gave to the Ashmolean in 1939. The opportunity to acquire the albums of intimate and humorous letters that he sent to May and to her daughter, Daphne, was unmissable; and we are most grateful for the support from the NHMF, the Art Fund, and other bodies, as well as numerous private donors. Their generosity has ensured that the letters have ended up in their rightful home, and that the Ashmolean now has one of the most representative, as well as distinguished, collections of Burne-Jones’s work in the world." Sir Peter Luff, Chair of NHMF, says: “Sir Edward Burne-Jones was the most prominent of the second generation Pre-Raphaelites and his work had an enormous influence. This exceptional collection of letters, which throws light on the last years of his life, was the most important part of his collection in private hands. I'm delighted that National Heritage Memorial Fund investment will mean they can be available for everyone to explore and enjoy.” Stephen Deuchar, Director of the Art Fund, says: "The Ashmolean owns one of the finest collections of works by Burne-Jones in the world, which will be greatly enriched by this important and delightful collection of letters."