SIR EDWARD COLEY BURNE-JONES BT ARA (1833-1898) Biography
PRE-RAPHAELITE (founded 1848) Biography

Provenance

Bertram Brooke, H H Tuan Muda of Sarawak
Lady Bryant
Sotheby's Belgravia, 29th June, 1976, lot 247

Literature

H H The Dayang Muda of Sarawak, Relations and Complications, 1929, page 98, illustrated opposite page 226

Description / Expertise

In her book Relations and Complications, Gladys Brooke (The Dayang Muda of Sarawak) tells the story of Edward Burne-Jones who along with Algernon Swinburne, visited her future husband, Bertram (The Tuan Muda) aged nineteen, at his sick-bed.

These visits of Swinburne during the Tuan Muda's illness were interspersed by those of Sir Edward Burne-Jones. He came frequently in the afternoon, after his walks or when he had returned from the city, and on several occasions he drew pictures to distract my future husband. Some of these I am reproducing: they will have a durable interest, for they have never seen the light of publicity. ...he drew one morning a dream which he had experienced the preceding night of a ghost: he depicted himself in bed and at the same time inscribed his attitude to the unwelcome vision. The sketches will throw a light on Sir Edward's personal character; as he executed each drawing at my husband's bedside he would recount at length the story of its inspiration. These stories my husband used often to repeat to me, looking over again the drawings which he counts among his greatest treasures.(1)

In 1866, Burne-Jones fell passionately in love with Mary Zambaco, a beautiful and volatile sculptress who belonged to the Greek community of London; this love nearly destroyed his marriage and caused him great anguish. Although the present drawing can be regarded as a caricature to amuse the young sick Bertram Brooke, it also reflects to a great extent the personal feelings of the artist at the height of his love affair. In this drawing, Burne-Jones is haunted by a female ghost which could well be Mary herself.


1. H.H. The Dayang Muda of Sarawak, Relations and Complications, The Bodley Head, London, page 98.