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Lot Essay
The present drawing is a study for one of the Three Graces in Burne-Jones’s Venus Concordia. This composition was part of the artist’s ambitious project to depict the Story of Troy, began in 1870, but ultimately left unfinished. While we can’t be sure of Burne-Jones’s intention, it is possible that he wished to create a vast ‘modern secular version of a Renaissance polyptych altarpiece’ (S. Wildman and J. Christian, Edward Burne-Jones: Victorian Artist-Dreamer, New York, 1999, p. 152) incorporating both painting and sculpture. Venus Concordia was conceived as the first of three predella panels to be followed by The Feast of Peleus and Venus Discordia. The incomplete oil sketch illustrating the schema for the total work is held at the City Museum and Art Gallery in Plymouth. It appears that Burne-Jones’s desire to explore the subject of Troy was superseded by the commencement of his Briar Rose and Perseus series. However, sections of the design were later returned to and developed by Burne-Jones. Both The Feast of Peleus (1872-81) and The Wheel of Fortune (1875-83) originated from the inspiration of the piece, along with the pair of Venus oils.
The composition of Venus Concordia shows the goddess Venus enthroned in a wooded landscape, while Cupid slumbers at her feet. The Three Graces are to her left, and contented lovers repose in the background. The present lot is a preliminary sketch for the first of the three Graces' figures on the far left of the arrangement. Georgiana Burne-Jones recorded in her Memorials the lengths the artist went to to perfect the composition: ‘with the three Graces who stand together at the right hand of the Goddess Edward took endless pains, to make them beautiful in themselves, yet subordinate to the beauty of Venus. And again, the beauty of each one of them must be measured, none transcending the other’ (G. Burne-Jones, Memorials, London, 1904, p. 268). A reduced version of both Venus Concordia and Discordia, executed in pencil, are at the Whitworth Art Gallery at the University of Manchester. The tranquillity of Concordia is upended in Venus Discordia, where the carnage wrought by the four Vices of Anger, Envy, Suspicion and Strife is portrayed.
The composition of Venus Concordia shows the goddess Venus enthroned in a wooded landscape, while Cupid slumbers at her feet. The Three Graces are to her left, and contented lovers repose in the background. The present lot is a preliminary sketch for the first of the three Graces' figures on the far left of the arrangement. Georgiana Burne-Jones recorded in her Memorials the lengths the artist went to to perfect the composition: ‘with the three Graces who stand together at the right hand of the Goddess Edward took endless pains, to make them beautiful in themselves, yet subordinate to the beauty of Venus. And again, the beauty of each one of them must be measured, none transcending the other’ (G. Burne-Jones, Memorials, London, 1904, p. 268). A reduced version of both Venus Concordia and Discordia, executed in pencil, are at the Whitworth Art Gallery at the University of Manchester. The tranquillity of Concordia is upended in Venus Discordia, where the carnage wrought by the four Vices of Anger, Envy, Suspicion and Strife is portrayed.