£3,500
Five Centuries: Furniture, Paintings & Works of Art | 627
Auction: Five Centuries: Furniture, Paintings & Works of Art
pencil on paper
The Burne-Jones Catalogue Raisonné Foundation:
Burne-Jones Drawing of Hands. Details for the three-light St. Matthew Window in the east wall of the south transept of Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge made c1872.
It contains figures of, from left to right Sibylla Persica, St. Matthew and Sibylla Cumana. The two studies to the left of the page are for Sibylla Persica and the two on the right are for Sibylla Cumana.
At this date the artist was preparing paintings from cartoons. It was his practice to make detailed studies of all the elements in a painting. These four were most likely made after the cartoons had been prepared and were to be passed to an assistant for laying in the design onto canvas. However, as was characteristic of the artist who prepared more works than could possibly be achieved, neither of the two side figures became paintings unlike the central figure of St. Matthew. (now in the Ponce Museum of Art, Puerto Rico)