DOI issue:
No. 38 (May, 1896)
DOI article:Studies by Sir Edward Burne-Jones
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17296#0222
Studies by Sir E, Burne-Jones
the first setting out of the pictorial idea and the and it guards against the danger that the artist
final completion of the entire work, are unusually may, by way of experiment, be injudicious
numerous, and are as often as not spread over enough to try new effects and changes at the risk
many years. At first the picture takes form merely of destroying what he has already set down,
as a slight suggestion, a note in black and white, It is as a consequence of this manner of work-
which expresses only the motive and subject, and ing that Sir Edward Burne-Jones is able every now
commits the artist to nothing but the general and then to show us something of the inner life of
arrangement. From this, however, is constructed his studio; and to the people who have a habit of
a full-size cartoon in colour, and with all the regarding the art of painting as a mere process of
various essential parts of the picture set out in placing pigments upon a canvas the revelation of
proper relation, so that the effect of the whole the labour involved in preparing for this last stage
composition may be easily appreciated. Then is both enlightening and instructive. An examina-
follows the stage in which the projected picture is tion of the work which has been brought together
made or marred, the stage during which every at the Fine Art Society's gallery gives us an insight
figure and face,
every foot and
hand, all the dra-
peries and cos-
tumes, and even
the backgrounds
and odd accesso-
ries, are studied
from Nature and
recorded over and
over again, until
any doubt which
the artist may
feel is set at rest.
Not till then does
he begin to deal
with his design
upon the canvas
or to paint any
part of it. He
keeps beside him
while he is at
work these studies
upon which he
has expended so
much care ; and
it is from them,
with frequent
references to life
itself, that the
picture is really
completed. The
method is sound
because it pro-
vides for the
proper acquiring
of all the inform-
ation needed
during the pro-
cess Of painting, STUDY OF DRAPERY FOR THE BEGGAR MAID IN " KING COPHETUA " BY SIR E. BUKNE-JONES
207
the first setting out of the pictorial idea and the and it guards against the danger that the artist
final completion of the entire work, are unusually may, by way of experiment, be injudicious
numerous, and are as often as not spread over enough to try new effects and changes at the risk
many years. At first the picture takes form merely of destroying what he has already set down,
as a slight suggestion, a note in black and white, It is as a consequence of this manner of work-
which expresses only the motive and subject, and ing that Sir Edward Burne-Jones is able every now
commits the artist to nothing but the general and then to show us something of the inner life of
arrangement. From this, however, is constructed his studio; and to the people who have a habit of
a full-size cartoon in colour, and with all the regarding the art of painting as a mere process of
various essential parts of the picture set out in placing pigments upon a canvas the revelation of
proper relation, so that the effect of the whole the labour involved in preparing for this last stage
composition may be easily appreciated. Then is both enlightening and instructive. An examina-
follows the stage in which the projected picture is tion of the work which has been brought together
made or marred, the stage during which every at the Fine Art Society's gallery gives us an insight
figure and face,
every foot and
hand, all the dra-
peries and cos-
tumes, and even
the backgrounds
and odd accesso-
ries, are studied
from Nature and
recorded over and
over again, until
any doubt which
the artist may
feel is set at rest.
Not till then does
he begin to deal
with his design
upon the canvas
or to paint any
part of it. He
keeps beside him
while he is at
work these studies
upon which he
has expended so
much care ; and
it is from them,
with frequent
references to life
itself, that the
picture is really
completed. The
method is sound
because it pro-
vides for the
proper acquiring
of all the inform-
ation needed
during the pro-
cess Of painting, STUDY OF DRAPERY FOR THE BEGGAR MAID IN " KING COPHETUA " BY SIR E. BUKNE-JONES
207