This painting and its companion, The Heart of the Rose, together with the larger painting, Love Leading the Pilgrim (Tate Gallery), form a trilogy on a romantic theme loosely based on parts of Chaucer's poem Romaunt of the Rose. Around 1872 Burne-Jones and William Morris collaborated on designs for a wall-hanging inspired by the poem, with Burne-Jones supplying the figures and Morris the briar background. The narrative sequence, consisting of many scenes, was embroidered by the wife and daughter of Sir Lowthian Bell, Ist Bt, an industrialist, and hung as a frieze in the dining room of his newly-built house in Yorkshire, Rounton Grange. The embroideries, which date from 1874-1882, are now in The William Morris Museum, Walthamstow. Both the present painting, dated 1884, and its companion, dated 1889, are based on the artist's original designs for the wall-hanging; indeed The Pilgrim at the Gate of Idleness is very close in composition to the corresponding section of the embroidery. The theme of the Romaunt of the Rose occupied Burne-Jones intermittently for over twenty years. The present painting was begun in 1874 and substantially finished in 1884. The Heart of the Rose, created as a pendant, was begun in 1889. Both paintings remained in the studio and were taken up again by the artist in 1892, following a period of illness, and completed in time for the New Gallery exhibition in 1893. Love Leading the Pilgrim (Tate Gallery), the largest of the group, was begun in 1877 and finally completed in 1897, the date of its exhibition at the New Gallery. The three paintings are conceived as a sequence. In the present painting, Pilgrim at the Gate of Idleness, the Pilgrim meets Idleness personified as a beguiling maid. Having escaped that temptation, the Pilgrim is led by Love through a briar thicket, depicted in the Tate Gallery painting. In the final painting, The Heart of the Rose, a winged figure, perhaps Love, leads the Pilgrim to the Rose, personified as a beautiful woman within a rose bush. Further versions of these subjects were drawn by Burne-Jones for the illustrations in the Kelmscott Press edition of Chaucer's works (1896). William Connal was the first owner of the two paintings, The Pilgrim at the Gate of Idleness and The Heart of the Rose, and probably acquired them from the artist. Connal's sale at Christie's in 1908, occasioned by his move from London to Glasgow, shows him to have been a serious patron of the Pre-Raphaelites. In addition to the nine works by Burne-Jones, he sold many other Pre-Raphaelite paintings, notably The Pretty Baa-Lambs by Ford Maddox Brown (Birmingham City Art Gallery). CHAUCER'S THE ROMANCE OF THE ROSE (Translated By F S Ellis) ... At last Mine eye with eager joy I cast Upon a wicket, straight and small, Worked in the stern, fobidding wall, And forwith set myself to get An entry there, whate'er might let. Full many a time with sounding blow I struck the door, and, head bent low, Stood hearkening who might make reply. The horn-beam wicket presently Was opened by a dame of air Most gracious and of beauty rare: Her flesh as tender chicken's was; Her blonde locks bright as bowl of brass; Radient her brow; of arching due Her eyebrows; and well-spaced the two; Neither too small, not yet too great Her nose, but straight and delicate. No falcon, I would boldly swear, Hath eyes that could with hers compare. Her breath was sweet as breeze, Thyme-fed; Her cheeks commingled white and red; Her mouth a rosebud, and her chin Well-rounded, with sweet cleft therein. Her flower-like neck, of measure meet, The purest lily well might beat For fairness, free of spot or wem. A chaplet on her brow was set Of orfreys; never maiden yet More lovesome looked, and though my days I spend to sing her beauty's praise, `Twere done but insufficiently. A graceful silken robe wore she And on her head a garland bare Of roses, which the orfreys fair Surmounted. With pleasant mien, in nowise high Or haughty, made she quick reply: “My dear companions well express My name, who call me Idleness, A rich and puissant woman I, Passing the time right gleefully; Nought else have I have think upon Save what fair raiment I shall don What rich and costly jewels wear, How deck my head, and `tire my hair. When this is finished then my day Is ended, and to mirth and play I give myself.” Lines 523-551: 561-569: 593-605
The two dates inscribed by the artist imply that Burne- Jones conceived this painting at an early stage in the development of the imagery for the series. He completed this and a companion painting of the same size, The Heart of the Rose, signed and dated 1889, for the Glasgow collector William Connal. In his dream the poet finally discovers an entrance to the walled enclosure. Knocking at the gate, he is welcomed by the figure of Idleness, who bids him enter. Burne-Jones is faithful to the text in rendering exactly the description of the "fair maiden," clothed in green and wearing white gloves, with a garland of roses in her hair. For this and the other oil, William Morris provided an explanatory quatrain: Lo, idleness opes the gate Where through the wandering man awaits So many fair and gallant shows Born of the Romance of the Rose.
Burne Jones knew of the story of the Roman de la Rose from 1860 from an illuminated manuscript copy held in the British museum, which is recorded in G P Boyce's diary for April 14th 1860. A pastel version c1885 on which the oil painting is based is in the collection of Wallington Hall Northumberland (National Trust). From this it is evident that the irises signify a message or messenger (Henry Phillips).