SIR EDWARD COLEY BURNE-JONES A.R.A. (BRITISH 1833-1898)
KATIE LEWIS
Estimate: £60,000 - £80,000
Auction: Lots 336 - 597 | 05 September at 10am
Description
Inscribed with sitter's initials and dated 1884, pencil
Dimensions
33.75cm x 23.75cm (13.25in x 9.5in)
Provenance
Provenance: Lady Lewis, and thence by descent through the family
Footnote
Exhibited:
Burlington Fine Arts Club, London 1896, no.184;
Hayward Gallery, London, The Paintings, Graphic and Decorative work of Sir Edward Burne-Jones 1833-1898, 1976, no.241; touring to Southampton Art Gallery; City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham.
Note:
Elizabeth (Betty) Eberstadt, daughter of Ferdinand Eberstadt of Mannheim , married George Lewis in 1867. He was one of the most eminent solicitors of the day, and was knighted for his services in connection with the Parnell Commission. Burne-Jones relied on him for professional advice, and by the 1880's and 90's had become a close friend of the Lewis family. He corresponded at length with Lady Lewis and the younger of the two daughters, Katie, and both mother and daughter sat to him for portraits or pencil drawings.
Burne-Jones wrote a series of letters to Katie Lewis who subsequently donated them to the British Museum. These range from the purest nursery fantasy to a rumbustious rendering of King Copetua a la Rubens (H & W, fig. 202) and drawings of the artist trying to climb inside a picture (H & W, figs. 209-13).