Wednesday Evening / I asked Georgie about her guests on / Friday - thats her birthday - & she / told me - O heaven, such an / ingenuous lot - how strange she / is - just the very people who / cant get on together - if she / writes & asks you to come please / don't - I should be miserable / or at least thoroughly uncomfortable / - I shall have a hateful Evening / & it doesn't matter - I can / hear anything now / But now tell me - do you / really go away next week? / is it true -? if you go on / the 26th. I shall go to the / sea the following Saturday. / but I shall wait till you are gone / before I make any step, for fear I / should be committed to going & / you by chance might still be staying. / I shall see you gone before I move. / Then God help me, I shall suffer / I know. / May I see you every day, if only / for a moment - & could we / really fly away for half a day / as we did to Hampton Ct. & / may I spend a sweet quiet / Evening with you - one at least. / I will make no engagement / now till you are gone - so I / am free for you on Saturday/ on Sunday / on Monday / on Tuesday / on Wednesday - on Thursday - & / Friday I dine with Mary Elcho. - / and will you spend an evening here / before you go - Oh make little / plans for me - & pity me these / coming days a little - I am / sure you can imagine what they / are going to be, & how desolate / for me. / I ran down to see you again in / the studio but you had just gone. / I opened the door & ran down / the street but you were out of / sight - so I came back & finished / Amy's portrait. & then lay / down for four hours & fell asleep / Oh how tactless is Friday. / if once she could guess - could once / know what I should like & what I / should hate. dear it does me / good to pour out to you - & I / feel kinder after it - I look / sometimes over such a waste of / years, so a=sad a retrospect - I / could cry tonight - I am going to / lose you so soon & feel like a / baby about it - you recovered / me to-day, strength came when / you were here - / I.m made like that - I cannot / help it - I live that way. / What will these months be / like - but there will be a / break or two, wont there? / and sweet winter will come - / delicious sunny November - and / pretty pastoral December, & / meadowy January & breezing / February. and you will write / to me every often & tell me all you / do. / Will you come on Friday morng. please / please, to work - & on Saturday / & Sunday I'll go to see you - & / Monday you will come & work / & Tuesday I will go to you & / so on. & then I'll face it / & set my teeth & work. / how I will work - I'll seek / no pleasure & I'll take none / till November comes. / did you laugh when I called it / pastoral December - but its right / when shepherds kept watch / on Christmas Eve. / Now look - I hate to hate - / ask Claude Phillips to meet / me - I never read a line / he has ever written - the / whole race of critics an / impertinence to my mind - I / bow before one tribunal only / that of time. & I know / two or three of the greatest / who have waited four hundred / years & been crowned immortal / so that set is very distrustful to / me - as lawyers are & politicians - / not of my world - but as persons / outside their detestable callings / they may be nice - & if he / has helped you ever I will / make up - ask him to meet / me & I'll repair any injustice / I have done him - I have / no time or room for dislike - / please God the rest of my / life shall be a fire you / live that all may be warmed / at. I have vowed a great / vow. / Goodnight - I'm pretty sad / to night & you know why - the / shadow of the Autumn is on / me - & I cant run about to / set the refreshment of the / kind upon my face - but / I am yet happy - does it / sound strange to day I am - / the sadness of tonight - but / the happiness is in my soul / God bless you & everyone you / love
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."