By Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Launcelot at the Shrine of the Holy Grail - Study for the Figures of Guenevere and Launcelot for Sir Launcelot's Vision (The Failure of Sir Launcelot). Burne-Jones sat for Sir Launcelot.
Brown pen and ink over pencil with touches of red chalk and small splashes of accidental colour, on paper.
1857
Dimensions: 25.2 cm x 32 cm
Collection Categories
By Other Artists/Individuals/Makers/Institutions etc, Portraits and self-portraits of Burne-Jones, Portraits Female (likenesses known and unknown)
Inscribed on the reverse by Fairfax Murray

Portrait of EB-J before he grew a beard.

This is one of several preliminary drawings in which Rossetti developed the composition of his mural painting for the Oxford Union. It depicts Sir Launcelot asleep and dreaming of Queen Guenevere. The Pre-Raphaelite artists involved in the Oxford Union scheme used each other as models - a note on the reverse of this sheet, in Charles Fairfax Murray's hand, records that the figure of Launcelot was done from Burne-Jones. It is a rare image of the young and unbearded Burne-Jones, who was then twenty-three,and quite feasible Jane Morris as the model for Guinevere.

Purchased from Charles Fairfax Murray and presented by Subscribers, 1903.

Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery
14/03/2019
Owner Dates Owned Further Info. and Accession no. circa
Charles Fairfax Murray 1903
Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery 1903 - Present 1904P272 Purchased from Charles Fairfax Murray and presented by Subscribers, 1903.
Exhibition Catalogue no, Page no, Illustration no. Institution/Venue People From To
The Paintings, Graphic and Decorative Work of Sir Edward Burne-Jones 1833-1898 (1975-6) cat. no. 368 p. 98 The Hayward Gallery
November 1975 January 1976
The Paintings, Graphic and Decorative Work of Sir Edward Burne-Jones 1833-1898 (1975-6) cat. no. 368 p. 98 Southampton City Art Gallery
January 1976 February 1976
The Paintings, Graphic and Decorative Work of Sir Edward Burne-Jones 1833-1898 (1975-6) cat. no. 368 p. 98 Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery
March 1976 April 1976
Title Author/Editor Year Page No. & Illustrations Attachments
Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Catalogue Raisonné, 2 vols 1971 Virginia Surtees (Miss Virginia Bell) 1971
cat no. 93B pl. 119
Burne-Jones: the paintings, graphic and decorative work of Sir Edward Burne-Jones 1833-98, Hayward Gallery 1975-6 John Christian, Miss Penelope Marcus 1975
cat. no. 368 p. 98