front cover Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
Identification and Creation
Object Number
1943.1815.15.1-44
People
Edward Burne-Jones, British (Birmingham, England 1833 - 1898 London, England)
Title
Sketchbook
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
sketchbook
Date
1870s-1880s
Culture
British
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/297573
Physical Descriptions
Medium
Tan cloth covers, pencil sleeve, remains of cloth ties; forty-four pages of heavy cream wove paper (the remaining pages are uncut)
Dimensions
14 x 10 cm (5 1/2 x 3 15/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • label: front cover, graphite: 33
  • label: inside front cover, printed: Roberson label (see 1943.1815.17), mostly removed
  • label: inside front cover, printed: FROM THE LIBRARY OF / EDWARD BURNE-JONES / THE GRANGE NORTH / END ROAD FULHAM
  • inscription: inside front cover, printed and inscribed: excerpt from Sotheby's sale catalogue: SIR ED. BURNE-JONES, BT. / 96 A sketch book containing numerous studies of draperies, / figures, etc. / Black chalk / size of leaves 6 1/4 in. by 4 1/2 in. Graphite inscription on excerpt: LK 1- 1- [?]
Provenance
Philip Burne-Jones, the artist's son, London; his sale, Sotheby's, London, November 10, 1926, no. 96 (£11); purchased at that sale by (?) Spencer; Miss Gray; acquired from her through Martin Birnbaum by Grenville L. Winthrop, August 1, 1928 (£126 10 s. for cat nos. 166-169); his bequest to the Fogg Art Museum, 1943.
Acquisition and Rights
Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.1815.15.1-44
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Descriptions
Description
Sketchbook with tan cloth covers; pencil sleeve; remains of cloth ties. 44 pages; the last quarter of the pages are in uncut drawing block. Pages of heavy cream wove paper, measuring 134 x 94 mm. Drawings are in graphite. Generally the drawings are on both sides of the page. Almost all are signed with the artist's initials.
Commentary
Mostly drapery and head studies, possibly studies for "The Wheel of Fortune" (1875-83).
Publication History

Paintings and Drawings of the Pre-Raphaelites and their Circle, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1946), cat. no. 44

Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Drawing on Tradition: The Lost Legacy of Academic Figure Studies, Harvard University Art Museums Gallery Series, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, 1994), no. 12, under checklist no. 9, p. 11

Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), cat. no. 167, repr. (color)

Debra N. Mancoff, "Unpainted Masterpieces: The Drawings of Edward Burne-Jones", Museum Studies [Objects of Desire: Victorian Art at the Art Institute of Chicago] (2005), vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 44-55, p. 92, note 25

Under Cover: Artists' Sketchbooks, website, Harvard University Art Museums, 2006, www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/sketchbooks

Exhibition History

Paintings and Drawings of the Pre-Raphaelites and their Circle, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/08/1946 - 06/01/1946

Portrait, Prospect and Poetry: British Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Bequest, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/11/1993 - 11/07/1993

Drawing on Tradition: The Lost Legacy of Academic Figure Studies, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/19/1994 - 01/29/1995

A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004

Under Cover: Artists' Sketchbooks, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 08/01/2006 - 10/22/2006

Related Works

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu