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.
Where signed ? Fitzwilliam work list: 1872 began large oil picture of Merlin and Nimue for Leyland 1873 Began Merlin and Nimue afresh 1875 painted much at Merlin and Nimue for Leyland 1877 finished Merlin Leyland Grosvenor Gallery Catalogue 1877: p26-27 59 The Beguiling of Merlin F. Leyland, Esq, "It fell on a day that they went through the forest that is called the Forest of Breceliande and found a bush that was fair and high, of white hawthorn, full of flowers, and there they sat in the shadow. And Merlin fell on sleep; and when she felt that he was on sleep she arose softly and began her enchantments, such as Merlin had taught her, and made the ring nine times and nine times the enchantments ... "And then he looked about him , and him seemed he was in the fairest tower of the world and the most strong; neither of iron was it fashioned, nor steel, nor timber, nor of stone, but of air without any other thing; and in sooth so strong it is that it may never be undone while the world endureth" - Romance of Merlin Indicating the significance for the artist, the placing of a blue iris prominently in the foreground, which in Phillips (1825) Floral Emblems signifies "message or messenger". More so than other paintings with hidden meanings, it tells of a personal story. The hawthorn tree appears in many of his paintings as it grows it twists and writhes and was thus attractive from an artistic point of view in the contorted lines it creates. Based upon a cruciform composition which culminates in the gaze as an added line and emphasises the psychological tension between the two protagonists. Nimue's head is at the centre of a vortex created by the branches of the hawthorn tree whose blossoms invade Merlin's space but do not do not break the sorceresses outline. In imprisoning Merlin in a tree, Vivienne (Nimue) has secured him for herself for eternity, Peter Levi in his biography of Tennyson indicates that the French romance in the Vulgate cycle, which was a source for both Tennyson and Burne-Jones, states that Vivienne (Nimue) claims "I shall often be here, and you shall hold me in your arms and I shall hold you in mine" p 240 A further comment was made on their relationship when he painted The Tree of Forgiveness again in 1881. A version, presumably the first noted as being abandoned because the paint would not adhere to the canvas,appears in a photograph of the Garden Studio published in The Magazine of Art in 1900 p 166. The whereabouts of this version is unknown.
The Renaissance theme introduced by The story of Troy informed several different settings used by Burne-Jones for paintings from the 1870s to the 1890s. One is his own version of a late 16th-early 17th century carved and pierced Venetian style frame, used for instance for The beguiling of Merlin. This was probably adapted from an original seen and sketched in Venice in 1871 or 1873, such as the example above, as no frame of this type seems to have been accessible in London at the time[31]. Strikingly unlike the academic frames commonly employed during the 1870s, which tended to be ogee or concave in section with applied compo ornament, Burne-Jones’s frames have a prominent carved torus of pierced, scrolling foliage, formed of a convex shell applied over a gilded hollow. As the spectator moves before the work, light is reflected in a shifting arc from the two levels, giving a sense of movement and vitality to the painting. The Frame Blog
Thursday, May 30, 1895 You speak of E.B.J's "Pan & Psyche" 9195) in one of your letters, at 1800 Guineas. I wonder if this is the one I saw at Agnew;s the day I first met you there, and that Lockett offered me for £1200. I was a large picture, and more subdued in colour than almost any other of E.B.J's i ever saw, except the "Melin & Vivian." (196) 1 Grays and greens. 1. The Beguiling of Merlin.