(I & II) INFANT'S HEAD FOR PUTTI IN 'TERRA OMNIPARENS' - RECTO; A STUDY OF A PUTTI'S HEAD AND HAND - VERSO I; A STUDY FOR 'THE GOLDEN STAIRS' - VERSO II
pencil on paper
both 25 x 14cm; 9 3/4 x 5 1/2in
each 65 x 26cm; 25 1/2 x 10 1/4in (framed as one)

Property sold on behalf of a Charitable Trust

Provenance
Sir George and Lady Elizabeth Lewis (a gift from The artist in 1881)
Thence by descent to the present owner, grandson of the above

Executed in 1879. The present two pages are preparatory sketches for Terra Omniparens, the painted inside-lid of a piano that depicts Mother Earth amid a grape-vine among which a throng of infants and baby-fauns are clambering. The decoration was for his friend and patron William Graham, a Scottish merchant and politician who presented the piano to his daughter Frances on her twenty-first birthday. Unlike the seraphic bliss the child exudes in the present work, Burne-Jones characterized the putti in his painting as miniature satyrs with pointed forelocks and tiny horns. On the verso of (II) is a study for the figure holding a pipe at the top of the stairs in The Golden Stairs (Collection Tate Britain) begun in the 1870s and completed in 1880, the model was Margaret Burne-Jones (1866-1953), the artist's daughter.

See note to lot 15

The pages of studies in this sale were originally bound in a sketchbook (sold Christie’s, London, 14 December 2016, lot 17 along with fifteen other pages split between lots 17-24) given by Burne-Jones to his friends Sir George and Lady Lewis and have never been exhibited or offered for sale. One of the pages in this lot formed the first page of the sketchbook and is dedicated to Elizabeth Lewis and dated 1881, presumably the date when the artist gave the gift. George Lewis was the most famous solicitor of his day – he made his name by representing the relatives of the poisoned Charles Bravo in the so-called Balham Mystery of 1876. Over a career of thirty years he was involved in nearly every cause célèbre that came to court in London – he extricated the Prince of Wales from the embarrassing Tranby Croft Baccarat Affair and various other scandals involving gambling and mistresses – his assistance led to him being granted a knighthood. In 1866 he married his second wife, the beautiful Elizabeth Eberstadt, a passionate devotee of the arts. Their home from 1876, 88 Portland Place was a magnet for artists and musicians and none were more welcome than Burne-Jones who became a great friend of them both and their children. Burne-Jones may have been in love with Elizabeth, like so many other younger women in his circle whose affection and attention he craved in later years; after his death she destroyed many of his letters, feeling they were too intimate to be allowed to survive for others to read. The charming illustrated letters that Burne-Jones sent to Lewis’ daughter Katie were published and show a wonderful paternal and humorous side of the artist.

The two pages and studies for The Golden Stairs relate to both of the sleeves of the girl playing a violin, half-way down the stairs (with the features of May Morris) and to the figure holding a cymbal, seventh from left whose face is obscured in the painting by the head of another musician. The beautiful folds of fabric are testament to Burne-Jones' careful attention to detail in the preparation of his paintings. The study on the reverse of one of the sheets depicting studies of a baby's head, is a study for the figure at the top of the stairs in The Golden Stairs, modelled by Margaret Burne-Jones.

The two pages of studies of a baby were made in preparation for Terra Omniparens the painted inside-lid of a piano decorated for Burne-Jones’ friend and patron William Graham. The lid depicts Mother Earth amid a grape-vine among which a throng of infants and baby-fauns are clambering.