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By Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones
Fata Morgana, a design for the Fairy Family by Archibald Maclaren
Pencil, pen and ink and wash
1854 circa - 1856
Dimensions: 14.4 cm x 9.6 cm
Collection Categories
Early Pen & Ink on vellum & paper done whilst working under D G Rossetti, Works on Paper / Vellum
  • Expertise
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As Sydney Cockerell's inscription in this very rare book
confirms, Burne-Jones later disowned this first attempt
at book illustration, as he did all his juvenilia; its authorship
was never publicly disclosed in his lifetime. Archibald
Maclaren (1819-1884) was a man of many interests who ran a
gymnasium in Oxford popular with undergraduates/ He
became a friend of both William Morris and Burne-Jones,
who recorded that "his talk was admirable and his tastes
inclin[ed] greatly to poetry." 2 The introduction to The Fairy
Family reveals a wide knowledge of literary sources, such as Sir
Walter Scott's essay "Fairies of Popular Superstition" in Border
Minstrelsy (1802-3) an d Thomas Keightley's Fairy Mythology,
first published in 1828 and reissued in 1850.

The frontispiece to the later edition of Keightley s book, by
George Cruikshank, combines several scenes and includes
myriad small figures in strange landscape settings. This may
have served as an initial inspiration to Burne-Jones when
Maclaren asked him in 1854 to illustrate the twenty-three bal-
lads that make up the book, beginning with "The Elf- Folk,"
for which "Whisper, Whisper" (cat. no. 2) is the main design.
This and the title page (together with a tailpiece depicting a
river spirit) were the only subjects eventually used as illustra-
tions when the book was published in 1857. Over a period of
two years Burne-Jones made no fewer than eighty-eight pen-
and-ink drawings for the book, ranging from slight sketches
and animated initial letters to further full-page designs such as
the dramatic shipwreck in "Fata Morgana" shown here: 3

On rushed the ship: from every cloud
A quivering tongue of lightning flashed,
And, hissing, traced each stay and shroud,
While all around the thunder crashed.

The later drawings show a clearly detectable stylistic influ-
ence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, whose work Burne-Jones first
encountered in 1855. Personal acquaintance with Rossetti in the
following year, and the decision to become a professional
artist, led to the abandonment of what must have seemed
embarrassingly naive and faltering first attempts as a drafts-
man, which nonetheless underline Burne-Jones's innate
romanticism and fertile imagination.

1. For a thorough account of Maclaren and the background to the Fairy
Family illustrations, see Christian 1985.
2. Memorials, vol. 1, p. 81.
3. The majority of the designs remained together in an album, whose con-
tents are now in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, together with
six additional drawings; seven others remain in a private collection.

Stephen Wildman
03/12/2018
Owner Dates Owned Further Info. and Accession no. circa
Archibald Maclaren
Sotheby's London (Sotheby & Co) 1981-1981 Nov 10 1981 lot 27 Sold to C Wood
Christopher Wood (Christopher Edward Russell Wood) 1981-1982 sold to Fred Koch
Frederick Robinson Koch (Fred Koch) 1982-1982 presented to Morgan Library
The Pierpont Morgan Library (The Morgan, The Morgan Library and Museum) 1982 - Present 1982.10 fol.39
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. 9 illus p. 19 The Hayward Gallery
November 1975 January 1976
The Paintings, Graphic and Decorative Work of Sir Edward Burne-Jones 1833-1898 (1975-6) Cat. no. 9 illus p. 19 Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery (Birmingham Museums Trust)
March 1976 April 1976
The Paintings, Graphic and Decorative Work of Sir Edward Burne-Jones 1833-1898 (1975-6) Cat. no. 9 illus p. 19 Southampton City Art Gallery
January 1976 February 1976
Edward Burne-Jones, Victorian artist-dreamer (Arist Dreamer), New York Cat. no. 3 p. 56 The Metropolitan Museum of Art
June 1998 September 1998
Edward Burne-Jones, Victorian artist-dreamer (Arist Dreamer), un maître anglais de l'imaginaire, Orsay Cat. no. 3 p. 56 Musée d'Orsay
March 1999 June 1999
Title Author/Editor Year Page No. & Illustrations Attachments
The Fairy Family: A Series of ballads and Metrical Tales Illustrating the Fairy Faith of Europe Archibald Maclaren 1857
Frontispiece, title page and tailpiece by Burne-Jones
Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones GB-J Lady Georgiana Burne-Jones 1904
pp. 100, 120, 135-136
Burne-Jones and "The Fairy Family" Roger Gilbert Lancelyn Green 1944
p. 420 - Also 9 November 1956, p. 665
Burne-Jones William Waters, Martin Harrison 1973
illus p18
Burne-Jones Studies I: Burne-Jones's Drawings for 'The Fairy Family' John Christian 1973
Burne-Jones: the paintings, graphic and decorative work of Sir Edward Burne-Jones 1833-98, Hayward Gallery, Southampton City Art Gallery, Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery 1975-6 John Christian, Miss Penelope Marcus 1975
Cat. no. 9 illus p. 19
Prices of Victorian Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours Peter Nahum 1976
Under Drawings and Watercolours - Burne-Jones
The Fairy Family, Archibald Maclaren, illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones Archibald Maclaren 1985
Edward Burne-Jones: Victorian Artist-Dreamer John Christian, Stephen Wildman, Laurence des Cars, Alan Crawford, Philippe de Montebello, Irene Bizot, Graham Allen, Henri Loyrette 1998
Cat. no. 3 p. 56
The Truth about Faeries Dr Anne Anderson, Graham Ovenden 2009
Cat no. 39 illus p. 49 copy belonging to the Ovenden collection
The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination Fiona MacCarthy 2011
Illus pl. XXII between pp. 358-359 and pls. 3, 13, 15, 27, 30, 31, 32, 33 between pp. 486-487 and in the text pp. 71, 180, 192, 203, 235, 238, 256, 268, 287, 329, 371, 387, 425, 439, 449, 466, 499 pp. 1-17, 20-24, 26-71, 75-122, 124-150, 153-154, 156-203, 205, 207-232, 234-242, 244-249, 251-262, 264-272, 274-279, 281-307, 309-317, 319-321, 323-352, 354-355, 357-361, 363-389, 391-392, 395-396, 398-400, 402-416, 418-446, 451-472, 474, 476, 478-483, 485-502, 504-518, 520, 522-523, 525-530, 534, 536
Edward Burne-Jones, バーン・ジョーンズ展 (Japan 2012) Stephen Wildman, Professor Joichiro Kawamura (The K Collection) 2012
2nd Edition Macmillan cat no. 66 illus p. 124


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