Study of a female nude, for the painting "Arthur in Avalon"

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt ARA (1833-1898)

c. 1885

Black and white chalk on brown paper

11 x 5 7/8 inches, 28 x 15 centimetres.

"The present study is for one of ther 'weeping queens' that surround Arthur. This queen sits with his his feet in her lap. In the painting the figure is draped. The study reveals that even at the end of his life Burne-Jones retained the academic practice of making preliminary studies for his figures in the nude. A Hollyer photograph of the painting in progress shows that it was laid in with the figures nude and the form of this study was almost exactly duplicated at the preliminary stage" (Waters, pp. 55-56).

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