Fitzwilliam Work list 1867 The Garland a watercolour in 6 compartments - unfinished and in the hands of that demon Howell Fitzwilliam Account book 1866 Dec 5 - 17 To 4 large designs for Kensington 28 Mar. 1 ... 2 designs Kens 14 There is evidence that there was a conspiracy between Charles Augustus Howell (Rossetti's dealer/agent) and the artist's model, Rosa Frances Corder (18 May 1853 – 28 November 1893), to alter this painting. Corder became the lover of Charles Augustus Howell in 1873. Howell is alleged to have persuaded her to create drawings in the style of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, which Howell could pass off as originals.[9] Corder is also said to have forged Fuselis.[10] Drawings derived from Rossetti's stained-glass window designs depicting the story of Saint George and the Dragon are attributed to her.[10] 9. M. C. Rintoul, Dictionary of real people and places in fiction, Taylor & Francis, 1993, p.521. 10. The Story of St George - St George Slaying the Dragon This work is part of a set of four drawings attributed to Rosa Corder after stained glass windows by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The head of St George is said to have been modelled on Charles Augustus Howell (1840-90), a controversial figure with the Pre-Raphaelite circle. Corder was an associate and mistress of Howell from 1873, who is considered by many to have been a forger of Rossetti as well as Fuseli drawings. In a letter of 22 March 1876, Rossetti writes to Howell: 'You borrowed a set of drawings of St. George and the Dragon to copy - for your own use only. Please return them to Chelsea at once.' (C. L. Cline (ed.), The Owl and the Rossettis: Letters of Charles A. Howell and Dante Gabriel, Christina, and William Michael Rosestti, Pennysylvania University State Press, 1978, letter 461). Rossetti wrote to Theodore Watts-Dunton on 11 February 1878 that 'He [Howell] has of mine five cartoons of St. George...' (Doughty and Wahl (ed.), Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, vol. iv, 1967, letter 1885).
This watercolour was one of a series of six that Burne-Jones painted in 1867. They were based on his designs for stained glass in the Green Dining Room at the South Kensington (now Victoria and Albert) Museum, which had been decorated by William Morris the previous year. The three windows each contain two lights in which girls dressed in white are seen gathering flowers, a very early expression of the Aesthetic Movement. However, in the paintings, which were probably executed directly on top of the stained-glass cartoons, the figures' dresses are strongly coloured. Although some of the watercolours remained unfinished, they were framed together and collectively called The Garland. They were then acquired by Charles Augustus Howell, the Anglo-Portugese adventurer who plays such a sinister role in Pre-Raphaelite annals, no doubt being intended for one of the decorative schemes with which he was involved. Burne-Jones himself refers to them in his autograph work-record as 'unfinished and in the hands of that demon Howell'. At a later date they were split up and framed separately. They are now widely dispersed. The present picture is one of the more highly finished, although it is not as complete as the one in the Cecil French Bequest displayed at Leighton House, Kensington. The latter was included in the Arts Council of Great Britain's touring exhibition, Burne-Jones - The Paintings, Graphic & Decorative Work of Sir Edward Burne-Jones, 1833-1898, 1975, no. 195, and again in the exhibition Burne-Jones and his Followers, circulated in Japan by the Tokyo Shimbun, 1987, no. 7 (illustrated in catalogue). Most of the other figures are also recorded; for details, see A.C. Sewter's monograph on William Morris's stained glass, loc. cit. The picture is in a handsome tabernacle frame of a type that Agnew's, Burne-Jones's dealers, often gave his pictures in the 1890s.