And there she stood . . . pale as privet blossom is in June, shrunk like a leaf The autumn frost first touches on the tree, Stared round about with eyes that could not see, -And muttered sounds from lips that said no word, And still within her ears the sentence heard, .......... and silence fell on all 'Twixt marble columns and adorned wall. The third subject has a similar friezelike composition, with the princess's attendants, this time standing, in place of the petitioners. There are some variations of detail between the pencil drawing (British Museum, London, acc. no. 1954-5-8- 11, signed and dated 1865-66) and the painting: in the latter, the princess seems more resigned to her fate as she draws the fatal lot labeled "MORITURA" (She who shall die). A sense of claustrophobic tension remains, emphasized by the discon- certing sea of hooded onlookers below the dais. The statuette of an ancient goddess on the left holds a globe, presumably symbolizing fortune, while, as John Franklin Martin has observed, the Gothic lectern with an eagle subduing a serpent may be read as a prefiguration of the eventual triumph of Saint George over the dragon, and of Christianity over paganism. 1 The next scene is of the princess led to the dragon, a verti- cal composition for which the drawing is missing. The oil was in a private collection in the United States until it was sold recently at Christie's (October 25, 1991, lot 25). 1. Martin 1997, p. 332.
Before he began teaching art history at Hanover College, a small liberal arts institution in southern Indiana, John Franklin Martin had heard that it owned several ''interesting'' paintings, which hung on the walls of a dormitory dining room. When he joined the faculty in 1995, he realized that they were two of the most important early paintings by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones, which art historians had thought were lost. ''The first time I saw them, it was nighttime,'' Mr. Martin, 48, said. ''Even though the room had poor light, I knew instantly what they were. They were like colorful eyes shining across the darkness.'' The paintings had been given to Hanover by an alumnus in 1939, but no one there realized their importance. It wasn't until the end of 1996, after Mr. Martin had researched the paintings thoroughly, that he began telling scholars what he had discovered. In May 1997, he wrote about them in Burlington Magazine. Three years earlier, curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art had begun organizing the first American retrospective of Burne-Jones's work, scheduled to open on June 4 and to travel after that. The show is to include more than 200 paintings, drawings and tapestries, as well as furniture, stained glass and jewelry culled from museums and private collections all over the world. When the Met curators heard about Mr. Martin's discovery, they wanted the Hanover paintings. ''Until they were recovered, we had no idea what the artist's early efforts looked like,'' said Laurence Kanter, a Met curator who helped organize the exhibition. ''They are among his first works in oil.'' The paintings -- ''The Petition to the King'' and ''Princess Sabra Drawing the Lot,'' dating from 1865-66 -- are part of the artist's first series, a group of seven paintings that tell the story of St. George and the Dragon. The series was commissioned by Myles Birket Foster, one of England's most successful book illustrators and watercolorists, and were last publicly exhibited at a show in England in 1906. ''At the time he painted them, he was still learning his craft,'' Mr. Martin said, observing that the oil paintings were rare because ''so much of Burne-Jones's early work was executed in stained glass, watercolor or pencil.'' He added, ''They are also rare stylistically because they show how his work was changing away from medievalism toward a more classical look.'' The paintings were given to Hanover by William Henry Donner, an industrialist who attended the college for one semester in 1882 but had been one of its major supporters throughout his life. He died in 1953. He bought the paintings at Christie's in London, specifically for the college. ''The Petition to the King'' is the second painting in the series and shows a king of Libya as he listens to the townspeople tell of the dragon's scourge. ''Princess Sabra Drawing the Lot,'' the third painting in the series, depicts the Princess as she has just drawn her lot, reading the word ''moritura,'' her death sentence. The other five paintings are scattered around the world. One is in a private collection in New York City and will be included in the Met's exhibition; another belongs to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and will not be included. Neither will one from the Bristol City Art Gallery in England. One in the permanent collection of the Musee d'Orsay in Paris will be included when the show travels to Paris, but it is too fragile to go anywhere else. One painting in the series is missing. It last appeared for sale at Christie's in 1991, but the buyer is unknown. The Hanover paintings are now undergoing restoration at the Met. ''Because they have been hanging in the same place, they are remarkably well preserved,'' Mr. Kanter, the curator, said. ''But their original frames do need some work.'' The show will be at the Met through Sept. 6, and then will travel to the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, in England, from Oct. 17 through Jan. 17, 1999, and then to the Musee d'Orsay, from March 1 through June 6, 1999. After that, the Hanover paintings will return to the college, and officials there say they intend to keep them.
Signed and dated lower right EBJ 1865-6 According to the catalogue of the 1898 New Gallery exhibition by J Comyns Carr " ...on a raised dais, a small statue of Fortune" identifies the figure to the left of the King. Malcolm Bell records the series were "subsequently largely re-painted by the artist " This occurred between 1895 and 1896 when the paintings were on the market and is evidenced by the maiden's faces belonging to a later period. And there she stood . . . pale as privet blossom is in June, shrunk like a leaf The autumn frost first touches on the tree, Stared round about with eyes that could not see, -And muttered sounds from lips that said no word, And still within her ears the sentence heard, .......... and silence fell on all 'Twixt marble columns and adorned wall. Quoted in the McLean Gallery catalogue of 1895 extracts from William Morris's The Earthly Paradise "The Story of Cupid and Psyche" Burne-Jones was aware of Blake's works from 1861,when he was taken by Rossetti to meet Alexander Gilchrist, who was working upon a life of Blake. ( Memorials Vol 1 p 231). Artists are drawn to portraying processions across a canvas as it is a simple way of emphasizing the two dimensional space and an effective way of structuring a design, hence its frequent occurrence as a pictorial device. Like Blake, Burne-Jones introduces a statuesque quality in the line of figures in Moritura (1865-66 Hanover College collection, USA) and The Wedding Procession of Psyche, 1894-95, (Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique). Brussels)
The paintings, which previously have been on display at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, were a gift to Hanover from American industrialist William Henry Donner, who attended the college for one semester in 1882. Works include prints by Picasso, Marini, Miro and Giacometti and a painting by Jean Honore Fragonard, a Barbara Hepworth wood sculpture and a painting by Flemish Renaissance artist Jan Gossaert Mabuse.
25 April 1895 Agnews bought them and had them oiled out4 and varnished and properly framed. Gooden then bought them and sold a half share in them to McLean who exhibited them at his place in Hay Market5. They are the cheapest lot of Burne-Jones's on the market, if you know of any friends who have a house big enough to hold them. 2 of them are as big as your [Samuel Bancroft] Briar Rose (197). 2 about 2/3rds this size and 3 others small. The difficulty is to sell them in the lump. Agnew was disposed to break them up if he hadn't sold them immediately and I expect that will be their ultimate fate.6 4. A process of rubbing the picture surface with oil to restore its original colour. 5. Thomas McLean's Gallery at 7 the Haymarket. 6. The set was dispersed.
13 May 1895 I do not know what the St. George pictures (!(") will go for but I believe 7,000. Everything depends on what E.B.J. will charge for retouching them as he wishes to do.
27 February [1897] I know exactly where E. B. J. got his Story of St. George from. He usually consulted Mrs. Jameson's "Sacred and Legendary Art"2 for the Lives of saints. I have referred to her book but the legend differs in details. he has probably supplemented it from other sources, but for all the details he would not be bound by any authority. 2. Anna Brownell Jameson. Sacred and legendary Art. London, Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans. 1848