This watercolour is the result of a unique collaboration with Sir Henry Irving for a theatre production of Comyns Carr's play, King Arthur at the Lyceum Theatre. The design is from the original drawing by Burne-Jones done in Autumn 1894 (given to the University of Wales for its seal) and is reproduced (page 247) in the memoirs of his wife Georgiana, with the following quotation: Whilst this work was going on I found upon the studio floor, thrown down as uncared for, a small sketch of Arthur in the barge, watched over by three vast forms of Queens robed in a cloudy blue, and the proportion which leaves the figure of Arthur undwarfed while they so greatly surpass him in size as in mystery.(1) The original drawings by Burne-Jones were slight, with a rough suggestion of colour. The backdrops were painted by the artists of the theatre in consultation with Comyns Carr. Four points in the play were taken: the Magic Mere, the Hall of Camelot, the May Scene, and the Scene in the Turret. Burne-Jones was particularly interested in scene-painting for plays and he arranged many of the scenes and dresses for Carr's play and was also responsible for the whole of the armour. The play was performed one hundred times in London and then traveled to America. The stage sets were safely transported back across the Atlantic only to be destroyed by fire on their return to England. This rare watercolour, therefore, is one of the few remaining items left from the play. 1. Georgiana Burne-Jones, Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones, London 1904, page 246.