Date: Fri 09-Jul-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: JUDIR

Quick Words:

Speed-Burne-Jones-acquisitions

Full Text:

The Speed Art Museum Unveils Two Burne-Jones Masterpieces

LOUISVILLE, KY. -- The Speed Art Museum is hosting "The Ties That Bind: The

Plight of Women in Victorian England," a small exhibition that centers on two

paintings by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, England's premiere painter of the late

Nineteenth Century. The Burne-Jones works are currently on loan to the Speed

Art Museum from Hanover College in Indiana.

Dr John Franklin Martin, guest curator of the exhibition, selected several

additional works for the exhibition from other regional collections to

illustrate the theme of the challenges faced by women during the Victorian

era. All the works are British and date from the Victorian period (1837-1901).

The small sampling of art reflects the Victorians' two major ways of depicting

women: as figures of servitude and as objects of beauty.

The two Edward Burne-Jones paintings are part of a seven-scene series from

"The Legend of St. George and the Dragon," commissioned for The Hill, a

Victorian house in Surrey, England. The owner of The Hill sold the "St George"

series when he moved in 1984. Burne-Jones subsequently regained possession of

the paintings in 1897 and sent them to the International Art Exhibition in

Munich, where they received a Gold Medal.

The series was dispersed soon after Burne-Jones's death, and these two works

were eventually purchased by William Henry Donner. Donner, an early steel

magnate who had attended Hanover College in the 1880s, gave the paintings as

gifts to the students of the college in 1939. Dr John Martin first saw the

paintings when he came to Hanover in 1994 and recognized them as

Burne-Jones's.

Burne-Jones is considered by most historians to be one of England's finest

artists of the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century. As a youth he was a

member of the Pre-Raphaelites, artists who used a naturalistic style to

promote moralistic themes. The "St George" series is among Burne-Jones's first

works in oil, his earlier creations consisting largely of watercolor paintings

and pen-and-ink drawings. The series is significant historically because it

shows Burne-Jones's departure from the medievalism characteristic of the

Pre-Raphaelite style.

Other pieces featured in the exhibition include two works by another English

artist, Simeon Solomon (1840-1905). One of Solomon's works is a watercolor and

oil painting that illustrates the Pre-Raphaelites' concern for beauty and

romantic love. The second, a graphite and crayon on paper dated ten years

later, reveals Burne-Jones's influence on Solomon. Another work on view from

the period is a portrait of "Lady Jane Beaufert," wife of James I, King of

Scotland (1859), by the Scottish oil painter James Archer. Three paintings by

English artists from the Speed's permanent collection are highlighted in the

exhibition, including two works by James Jacques Joseph Tissot and a painting

by Richard Redgrave.

The museum is located at 2035 South Third Street. Gallery hours are Tuesday,

Wednesday and Friday, 10:30 am to 4 pm; Thursday, 10:30 am to 8 pm; Saturday,

10:30 am to 5 pm; and Sunday, noon to 5 pm. For more information, call

502/634-2700.