The Mirror of Venus

The Printsellers' Association, London|Sir Edward Burne-Jones|Félix Jasinski|Arthur Tooth & Sons|The Fine Art Society, London|Stiefbold & Company|A. Salmon and Ardail

1896 · Etching on imitation vellum; proof · Drawings and Prints

Burne-Jones painted this subject for Grosvenor Gallery’s first exhibition, in 1877 (Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon), and his composition encapsulates the emerging Aesthetic style. Specific narrative is avoided, and the sweetly elegant girls—whose faces and forms pay tribute to Sandro Botticelli—convey a mood of dreamy melancholy. Gathered before a strange barren landscape, the maidens are entranced by a reflective pool—the mirror of the title—and in a lovely visual conceit, the flowered lawn in the foreground crowns their reflected heads. Etched with great delicacy by the French-trained, Polish-born Jaskinski, the print was published in London and Berlin, testifying to Burne-Jones’s international appeal.

Artist

The Printsellers' Association, London|Sir Edward Burne-Jones|Félix Jasinski|Arthur Tooth & Sons|The Fine Art Society, London|Stiefbold & Company|A. Salmon and Ardail

Date

1896

Medium

Etching on imitation vellum; proof

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959