Although The Beguiling of Merlin was one of the major works with which Burne-Jones made his triumphant public reappearance at the opening of the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877, it had been begun many years before, and was con- ceived possibly as early as 1870, to fulfil a commission from Frederick Leyland. He started work in 1872 and was well under way during the following year, when he discovered that his paints were not adhering properly to the canvas; a letter to his patron expresses his frustration at falling "victim of some trumpery material," and includes the promise to "begin it all over again if you think it worth while." 1 Of course Leyland did, and work resumed early in 1873. Although the canvas is dated 1874, there is evidence of some additional work before its even- tual exhibition. There are many preparatory drawings, including an early compositional design in which the figures are drawn from the nude. 2 A weighty drapery study of 1872, one of his finest, is among several for the picture now at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, that testify to Burne-Jones s usual preparation from studio models. Such studies amplify the failure of Ruskin to appreciate this kind of work — something that caused Burne-Jones genuine distress — as expressed in Ruskin's letter: "Nothing puzzles me more than the delight that painters have in drawing mere folds of drapery and their carelessness about the folds of water and clouds, or hills, or branches. Why should the tuckings in and out of muslin be eternally interesting?" Georgiana Burne-Jones commented sadly that this showed Ruskin "without that love of the human form which to an artist makes each fold of drapery that clothes it alive." 3 The watercolour of the head of Nimue must date from 1872 or 1873 and is one of the artist's best portraits of Maria Zambaco. A letter of 1893 to his friend Helen Gaskell found him musing that "the head of Nimue in the picture called The Enchanting of Merlin was painted from the same poor traitor and was very like — all the action is like — the name of her was Mary. Now isn't that very funny as she was born at the foot of Olympus and looked and was primaeval and that's the head and the way of standing and turning . . . and I was being turned into a hawthorn bush in the forest of Broceliande — every year when the hawthorn buds it is the soul of Merlin trying to live again in the world and speak — for he left so much unsaid." 4 This identification with the beleaguered magician, only half in jest, goes some way to explain the development of the image from its previous treatment in the watercolour of 1861 (cat. no. 15). For the Grosvenor Gallery catalogue Burne-Jones provid- ed a passage of text deriving from the late medieval French Romance of Merlin, in which Nimue is far more the femme fatale, luring the magician to his doom as they walk together in the forest. Her hair is now entwined with snakes, like the Gorgon Medusa, and Merlin is depicted as curiously acquies- cent, as if aware of his inability to prevent her from capturing his heart and diminishing his powers, an image perhaps delib- erately rather than subconsciously echoing Burne-Jones's own feelings toward Maria. In his capacity as an art critic, William Michael Rossetti (Dante Gabriel's brother) succinctly summed up a general reaction in finding impressive "the grand figure of Nimue dark and lovely, with a loveliness that looks ominous and subtle without being exactly sinister, and the exquisite painting of the lavish white hawthorn blossom." 5 The integration of figures and background is particularly masterly, with a sinuous linear rhythm leading the eye around the protagonists and lighting on the contrasts between Nimue s lively face, hands, and feet and Merlin's defeated limpness. F. G. Stephens thought "Nimue's face in its snaky intensity of malice is marvellous, not so the weak and womanish visage of Merlin." 6 Burne-Jones had indeed encountered difficulty in finding the right head, and had pursued Rossetti s suggestion of the American painter and journalist William James Stillman (1828-1901), who agreed to sit in spite of the artist's trepidation: "I don't think I can ask him, knowing him so little and the pose being torture." 7 Henry James noticed perceptively that, especially on works of this scale, Burne-Jones's figures "seem flat and destitute of sides and backs," but equally he had to admire The Beguiling of Merlin as "a brilliant piece of rendering . . . [that] could not have been produced without a vast deal of 'looking' on the artist's part." 8 The painting went on to the 1878 Paris Exposition Universelle, as the first of Burne-Jones's works to be seen by an appreciative audience abroad, initially finding greater favour with the critics than with the general public. Charles Blanc was one of several writers who enthused over the painting: "To my mind the most stunning picture which has come from London is that by Burne-Jones: Merlin and Vivien. There is in it a quintessence of the ideal, a hidden poetry which strikes me to the heart." 9 1. Memorials, vol. 2, p. 39. 2. Fogg Art Museum 1946, no. 21. 3. Memorials, vol. 2, p. 18. 4. Quoted in Fitzgerald 1975, p. 150. 5. Academy 11 (1877), p. 467. 6. Athenaeum, May 5, 1877, p. 584. 7. Memorials, vol. 2, pp. 39—40. 8. Galaxy, August 1877; reprinted in James 1956, p. 145. 9. Charles Blanc, Les beaux-arts a {'Exposition Universelle de i8j3 (Paris, 1878), p. 335 ("a mon sens la plus étonnante peinture qui nous soit venue de Londres est celle de Burne-Jones: Merlin et Viviane. II y a la une quin- tessence d'ideal, une poesie sublimée qui m'apprehende au coeur"). This review and others are quoted in the thorough account of the picture given in Lady Lever Art Gallery collection 1994, pp. 7- 11.
Rossetti letter to Madox Brown 23 January 1869: Poor Ned's affairs have come to a smash altogether, and he and Topsy, after the most dreadful to-do, started for Rome suddenly, leaving the Greek damsel beating up the quarters of all his friends for him and howling like Cassandra. Georgie stayed behind. I hear to-day however that Top and Ned got no further than Dover, Ned being so dreadfully ill that they will probably have to return to London.
In January 1869 his wife Georgina found a letter from Maria in his clothing and Burne-Jones reluctantly ended the affair.