the legend OF XTfye Briar IRose.” PRICE SIXPENCE. ™ a ver y use f ul Idtle manual on Jewellery, of importance .”— Public Observer, 16th JSov., 1867. “ This volume is worth its weight in gold — Court Journal, 9th Feb., 1867. “ Every intending buyer of Jewellery should make Mr. Streeter's little book his vade mecum."— Illustrated Ne-sv3, 30th November, 1867. THE LEGEND OF "0)2 23rictr &os 2 . A SERIES OF PICTURES PAINTED BY E. BURNE JONES, a.r.a. EXHIBITED iAT Thos. agnew & sons- Galleries, 2, Dale Street, Liverpool. 1890. —St' “2 Nov., ±4ST.™ “ This volume is worth its weight in gold " — Court Journal, 9th Feb., 1867. Every intending buyer of Jewellery should male Mr. Streeter's little booh his vade mecum / Illustrated News, 30lh November, 1867. “THE BRIAR ROSE.” given us |HE joyous Realm of Fairyland has never received such elaborate and such lovely illustration as in this series of four spacious canvases upon which Mr. Burne Jones has his own version and view of the charming old-world legend of “ The Sleeping Beauty.” The story itself, in its simpler form, is familiar enough to every nursery. Every young reader of Mother Goose’s Fairy Tales knows all about the belated, but beautiful child born at last to the long lamenting king and queen, who lived in that convenient period, both for fairy legend and ideal art, known as “ once upon a time.” The splendid christening of the young Princess, the Seven Fairy Godmothers and their gracious gifts, the malice of the recluse old Fairy who by inadvertence had not been invited, all these things are too well known to need detailed setting forth. Every reader will remember how, after the kindly fairies had endowed the child with every gift and grace, the slighted “ vieille F6e qu’on n’avoit point pri6e, parcequ’il y avoit plus de cinquante ans quelle n’etoit sortie d’une Tour, et qu’on la croyoit morte, ou enchantee,” gave unpleasant proof of her existence by declaring that “the Princess should pierce her hand with a spindle and die of the wound.” But the fiats MR. EDWIN W. STREETER ] h I 15 1 V, fo: H “P. “/li THE ‘BRItAR OSS . of fairyland are not quite so inexorably unalterable as Medo-Persic laws, and childhood was relieved to find that the benignant young Fairy, who had hidden behind the tapestry, was able to commute the sentence of death upon the beautiful Princess into slumbering imprisonment for one hundred years, in a silent palace hidden within an enchanted wood. The fated spindle of course pierced the Princess's fair hand, of course the century of sleep followed, and equally of course, at the appointed time, the fated Prince penetrated the wood, broke the spell, and awoke the Sleeping Beauty to life and love. Mr. Burne Jones has naturally treated the old legend in his own way. Perrault called his “ Conte du Terns passe/' “ La Belle au Bois Dormant; " Lord Tennyson in his delicious “ Day-Dream,” delineates first “ The Sleeping Palace ; ” the painter for pictorial purposes deals with the story as “ The Legend of the Briar Rose.” In all four pictures the Briar Rose is everywhere, tangling the woody approach, clustering up the “ Council Room,” trailing about the “ Garden Court,” and crowding with its sweet, spicy blossoms and tooth-like thorns the inner “ Rosebower,” where the Sleeping Beauty, surrounded by her slumbering tire-maidens, lies awaiting the advent of the Awakener. It is a beautiful conception, linking and harmonising everything, pictorially-speaking, and from this point of view must the series be regarded. Perrault says, “ II crut dans un quart d’heure tout autour du Parc une si grande quantity de grands arbres et de petits, de ronces et d’^pines entrelasses les unes dans les autres, que bete ni homme n y auroit —Si “ j Nov.,' “ LV 41 iW# intending buyei' of Jewellery should Kale 3A Streeter's little "booh his vade Illustrated New 3, 30:h November, 1867. mecum. THE ‘BRLAR the Kingdom's Peril and Increase , sleep on and bide the later Day when Fate shall take her Chain away. It depicts the council chamber of the white-bearded king. He sits on his throne of bronze, wrapped in embroidered cloth of silver, and wearing a quaint crown. Although sleeping, he still holds in one hand an open scroll, which seems to have been the subject of discussion with the lords who lie on couches or on the floor near their master. Nearest, reclines the chief coun¬ cillor in blue, a crafty smile fixed upon his face; close by is the treasurer, with his hand on his special charge, the purse; next to him slumbers the general in his armour. On our left the sentry, fixed in sleep, leans upon his spear. Through a grille of gilt bronze behind these figures are visible the faces of the guards and attendants in an outer chamber. The hour-glass, long at rest, is on a stool near the king. The briars penetrate the grille and extend themselves over the couches and the TVTR TT.’nWTTVT "XXT Q'T'TDT7T7'rriT7-o jli ffc > 4 1 1 Si 1 Bi I Br B Ya for ! “Pi “Jj ‘BRItAR %OSS. throne. The softened light is much brighter than in the first ^ The motto of the third picture is The Maiden Pleasannce of the Land knoweth no Stir of Voice or Hand. No Cup the sleeping Waters fill; the restless Shuttle lieth still. Here the scene is a courtyard open to the air, where the giant arms of the magical briars form great loops, and from the fountain on one side to the loom on the other stretch along in the sunlight. The maiden at the loom (she is clad in deep rose-red) leans over her wrap, and, with her face resting on her crossed arms, sleeps as she has slept for centuries. Another lies on the floor, and a third sits on the loom frame. At the fountain slumber three other maidens clad in beautiful colours, which are beautifully harmonized with the chromatic and tone schemes of the entire picture. The motto of the fourth painting is Here lies the hoarded Love> the Key to all the Treasures that shall be. Come, fated Handy the Gift to take , and s?nite this sleeping World awake. This depicts the princess’s chamber, which is surcharged with a rosy and golden light, so that there are hardly any shadows, and the delicate splendour of the scene, the beautiful forms of the sleep¬ ing ladies, their sumptuous garments, embroideries, and jewel¬ lery, lose none of their charms. The royal damsel, who is clad in warm white, lies under a coverlet adorned with needlework in silver ; her face, which is turned towards us, is a little flushed by the life within, her lips are touched with a smile, and every limb and feature bespeaks “ a perfect form in perfect rest.” The charm of her face is enhanced by the slight disorder of her hair and the stillness of her eyelids. The pillow on which her head rests is of dark rose colour and silver ; her couch is pale purple, with a broad hem of gold, upon which a quaint line of silver bells hangs from a cord of the same metal. Near the princess’s shoulder the fairest of her maids of honour reposes upon the floor, her lute lying at her hand, while near her feet two other maidens form a fine group. In front lies a casket of jewellery, to which a briar has reached ; near it is an inlaid mirror ; over the princess’s head hangs a silver bell; the carpet at the side of her couch is of a dark red ground with a pattern of deep blue peacocks. Upon the central group the artist has concentrated all the resources of his palette, and he has displayed exquisite taste in producing a combination of hues more lovely than any¬ thing he has hitherto achieved. The figures and faces of the princess and her principal attendant are worthy of their place as the crowning elements of the superb series which closes with them. I (< —Si\ “5 Nov., u-tio#. “ I7lis volume is worth its weight in gold ’—Court Journal, 9th Feb., 1867. Evei'y intending buyer of Jewellery should make Mr. Streeter's little book his vade meciun. "- Illustrated New3, 30th November, 1867. _ THE *BRItAR T^OSE. “THE SPEAKER,” May 3, 1890. Before the bustle and tumult of the Royal Academy, the Grosvenor, and the New, are fully upon us, it may not be alto¬ gether loss to spare a little time for Mr. Burne-Jones, A.R.A., and his four great pictures illustrative of the legend of Prince Charming and the Lady of the Sleeping Wood. Their painter, indeed, has given them seven years of unremitting industry. And it well may be that in the distant future, when every other picture of this year of grace, whether shown in busy London or by the fashionable banks of the Seine, has been forgotten, these works will be remembered and held in ever-increasing reverence; for whatever their merits or demerits, they have this high quality —they are unique ; they and their painter stand royally alone. Nor dispute as we will about their conventionality, their technique , their meaning, and much else concerning them, about which Mr. Burne-Jones never troubled his thoughts, can we with justice, if we have any sense of what is artistic, refuse to admit that a spirit of indefinable and subtle beauty pervades them. To describe them at all adequately would need more space than we can give. They are uniform in size, 11 feet long by 5 feet high. The artist has chosen, not the very incident of the awakening from the century of mystic slumber, but the eve of that fateful moment. In the first we have “ the fated fairy Prince,’’just stepping into light, with his shield pushing back the mighty Rose-briar which, “ thick, close-matted, a wall of green,” obscures the dim light, and creeps along the earth in brown coils, big as serpents’ bodies. Before him lie, just as they fell, his predecessors. But “ the many fail ; the one succeeds; ” and he is the obedient servant of the high gods. Preceding the Prince into the council-room where King, Chan¬ cellor, and courtiers; all, “ The threat of war, the hope of peace, The Kingdom’s peril and increase, Sleep on,” next we are in the “maiden pleasance of the land,” an open quadrangle, spacious, luminous with mellow light, where virgins clad in robes of soft splendour, rich, deep-toned and beautiful, sleep in attitudes of exquisite grace. Lastly, we enter the Rose- bower, the sanctuary of the Princess, where, in this finer light, the silence is almost audible, and the palpable stillness of the charm rests on all till the magic kiss shall touch the lady’s lips, and invincible love “ smite this sleeping world awake.” These pictures must be looked upon chiefly as a very noble form of decorative art. They are, of course, entirely conven¬ tional in their treatment. But all art is so. All that we can demand is that the convention be broad and consistent through- 24 THE BTJ-AR %0S£. 3 Si I 33 Vi; foii H If i out. Here the convention is noble, dignified, tranquil, homo¬ geneous in all its details, and satisfying. Mr. Burne-Tones takes us into the ideal land of pure romance. At first glance there is much we feel inclined to resent, but gradually we see the artist’s meaning as a whole, and every detail grows har¬ monious, and his work clearly comprehensible, not to say in a certain sense natural. In the third picture we find the artist at his perfection—balance of composition, luminosity, breadth, daring and luxurious colour, and the most graceful figures he has ever drawn. In the fourth the high merits cease to rise in crescendo , and he in some sense fails to realise the crowning loveliness, the constant beauty which informs “stillness with love and day with light,” the perfect form in perfect rest. Dealing with fairy-land, the artist has asserted his right to be eclectic as to place and date. The folds of his drapery are all conventionally treated, especially when he desires to imply deeper repose, as in the rigid folds of the Princess’s couch¬ covering. Sir Joshua Reynolds held that artists were wrong to concern themselves with texture, that they had no right to indicate fabrics—silk, velvet, linen—that to paint drapery should be their only aim. Mr. Burne-Jones apparently agrees with him. He indicates but one material, though in some cases we wish he would make it less felt or baize-like—something a little diaphanous would here and there be such a relief. And this brings us to the artist’s abiding fault. v His colour is superb ; his management of crimsons, blues, and purples of Oriental voluptuousness and splendour, and yet a “soft lustre” suffuses it all. But it lacks brilliancy, depth, light, variety. A sense of monotony characterises all this artist’s paintings, giving them almost the appearance of tapestries. Mr. Burne-Jones’ feeling is, of course, toward the earlier Italian masters ; but they had mechanical secrets for compounding, making, and applying their colour undreamed of by their living admirer. Rossetti at whose feet Mr. Burne-Jones sat, has been surpassed in freedom and grace of drawing, in imagination, and in refinement by his pupil, who attains in these pictures, his master-work, to a position of which we may be proud as a nation—for he is British by birth, education, and feeling, has studied in no foreign schools, and the substance and the manner of his work are totally unlike anything else at home or abroad. What is the soul of this allegory ? Is not beauty sufficient ? And we may say in Carlyle’s pfirase that these pictures are sig¬ nificant of much—or nothing—according to those who look at them. It only remains to add that they are on view at Messrs. Agnew’s, in Bond Street, where they are seen to the best advan¬ tage in a gallery especially and admirably prepared to suit them. A _c u i his is a very useful little manual on Jaucllery , of importance.’ —-Public Observer, lfith -Nov., 1867. “ 7his volume is worth its weight in gold."— Court Journal, 9th Feb., 1867. Evei'y intending buyer of Jewelltry should mahe Mr. Streeter's little booh his vade niecum .''— Illustrated New 3, 30th November, 1867. THE LEGEND OF “m?e JBriar IRose.” The Series of Pictures will be reproduced by Photogravure, under the guidance of Mr. BURNE JONES. Subscription for the Series of Four Pictures Artist’s Proofs . £^\ io o Proofs before Letters . 18 18 o India Prints . , Q IQ n Or Separately:— Artist’s Proofs. Proofs before Letters India Prints . Prints . £8 8 o each . 5 5o„ 3 3o„ 220,, THOS. AGNEW &: SONS, Publishers, 39, Old Bond Street, London, W. 2, Dale Street, Liverpool. 14, Exchange Street, Manchester. Hot, m'f u Pro) (( u Aria HE “ Th: -Stas “ Thu^ u utry usejui little manual on Jewellery , of importance.” — Public Observer, 16 tb xsov., 1867. “ Ihis lohme is worth its weight in gold "— Court Journal, 9th Feb., 1867. Evei y intending buyer of Jewellery should make Mr. Streeter's little booh his vade mecuni. '— Illustrated News, 30:h November, 1867. J