Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt., ARA, RWS, (British, 1833-1898)

Study for An Untold Dream

Study for An Untold Dream
signed, inscribed and dated 'EB-J/1895/for the dream.' (lower right)
pencil
43 x 34cm (16 15/16 x 13 3/8in).

Provenance
The Fine Art Society, London.
Thomas Agnew & Sons.
Herbert Minton Robinson (1858-1923) Collection, UK.
Thence by descent.

Exhibited
London, The Fine Art Society, Studies & Drawings by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Bart., April 1896, probably no. 58.

This study of the head and hair of a young woman – her face seen in near profile and towards the right – relates to one of the girl's heads that form the composition of Burne-Jones's late oil subject An Untold Dream (alternatively known as The Uninterpreted Dream or Spirits) (Etienne Breton, Saint-Honoré Art Consulting, Paris). In the painting, the heads of four girls, each with flowing golden hair, are seen against a mass of blue-grey draperies. Each faces to the right and together they seem to be watching something or someone outside the picture space. The motif of watchfulness connects the subject with canvases that the artist had in hand in the last years of his life such as The Sirens (Ringling Museum, Sarasota, Florida), in which mythological subject young women draw mariners to their fate, or the side panels intended to accompany the great Arthurian composition, The Sleep of King Arthur in Avalon (Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico), and in which are shown the figures of hill fairies, male on the right and female on the left, watching the byre upon which the king's body lies (see Peter Nahum, Burne-Jones – A Quest for Love, exhibition catalogue, 1993, no. 25). An Untold Dream seems to have no specific narrative subject, but serves as an exercise in mood and as such forms a personal decorative scheme. The present drawing corresponds most closely to the head of the girl shown at the left centre of the arrangement, and the hair of which figure is similarly swept back.

An Untold Dream remained in Burne-Jones's possession until his death and was included in the Christie's sale of the contents of his studio in 1898. Shortly afterwards, it appeared on the art market in New York, later entering a private collection in the United Kingdom, until 2010 when it was sold at Sotheby's in London. In 2018 the painting was shown as number 153 in the Burne-Jones exhibition at Tate Britain. Whether or not a more finished version of the subject was intended is unknown. The present drawing's inscribed date – 1895 – provides evidence as to when the oil version was commenced.

The present drawing was included in an exhibition of Burne-Jones drawings and studies at the Fine Art Society, probably that which occurred in 1896 and which must have drawn on material taken directly from the artist's studio. There are various items listed in the catalogue of the 1896 exhibition which might correspond to the present subject, but the best candidate is that entitled Study of Head for Unfinished Picture, which was no. 58 in the catalogue. The drawing was at some point handled by Agnew's, and later acquired by Herbert Minton Robinson (1858-1923) – director of the Minton china and pottery manufacturer in Stoke-on-Trent.

This is a very beautiful and characteristic drawing from Burne-Jones's late career. Although related to the composition identified above, it may well have been regarded as a work of art in its own right, on the grounds of completeness and scale, and is of the type that was most highly prized in the 1890s and in the first decade of the 20th century for the delicacy of the artist's drawing technique and for the wistful poignancy of its image.

We are grateful to Christopher Newall for compiling this catalogue entry.