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Studies for a Hill Fairy; for the paintings 'the Hill Fairies' for the intended triptych 'Arthur in Avalon' (verso) Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt ARA (1833-1898) Signed with initials 'EBJ' Pencil on white paper 10 3/4 x 5 inches, 27.3 x 12.7 cm
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Commentary by Hilary Morgan
The scheme of Arthur in Avalon went through many modifications. Graham Robertson, a great admirer of the artist, described the stage to which this drawing relates: 'When I saw it (i.e. Arthur in Avalon) in the painter's memorial exhibition, framed and hung amongst his other works, I was again able to appreciate its beauties, but I have always regretted the removal of two outer panels, part of the original.
Design, which formed the picture into a great triptych. These panels represented the Hill Faeries, the echoes lurking in clefts of the rocks and waiting to prolong and repeat the trumpet blare that would proclaim the waking of Arthur to the world. These little watching figures, their eyes fixed upon the still form of the sleeping king, conveyed the idea that all nature waited breathless for a sign, for the long silence.to be rent by a mighty sound.
'I always mourned the Hill Faeries, rejected at an early stage of the picture's development, and tried to "keep up" with them after their banishment to an upper chamber at the Grange, and afterwards, when they passed into the possession of the Artist's grand daughter.'(Robertson, 1931)
Burne-Jones's conception of 'fairies' in this work owes more to classical notions of naiads and dryads, than to traditional Victorian images of fairies. The present drawing does not relate directly to any figures in the existing panels.
References
Morgan, Hilary and Nahum, Peter. Burne-Jones, The Pre-Raphaelites and Their Century. London: Peter Nahum, 1989. Catalogue number 74.
Robertson, W. Graham. Time Was. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1931.
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Last modified 2 January 2002