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拍品专文
The picture has had several names. Burne-Jones called it Vesper in his work-record but exhibited it as Evening. More recently it has been known as Hesperus or The Evening Star. Whatever its title, it belongs to a group of works of the 1870s in which the artist explored the idea of representing cosmic subjects by allegorical figures floating in the night sky. Executed in an appropriate range of saturated blues and greens, these images show him in his most Symbolist vein. Parallels exist in the work of G.F. Watts and Simeon Solomon, both of whom he knew well.
The related works are as follows. Between 1870 and 1873 Burne-Jones painted a pair of watercolours, Vesper and Night, for Frederick Craven, the Manchester businessman who was one of his staunchest patrons at this date (Figs. 1-2). Vesper is a version of our picture, bluer in tone and showing the figure's head in profile rather than profil perdu. Night represents a female figure flying in the opposite direction, her arms outstretched as if feeling her way in the darkness. Both pictures were included in the exhibition devoted to British Symbolism that was mounted by the Tate Gallery in 1997-8. Vesper was illustrated on the cover of the catalogue, as if epitomising the subject of the show.
These works were followed by Luna, an allegorical depiction of the moon similar in style but larger in scale and painted in oil (Fig. 3). The picture was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1878 and bought by Alexander Ionides, the younger brother of Constantine Ionides, whose well-known collection has long been in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Having been 'lost' for many years, Luna found its way into the collection of Yves Saint Laurent, appearing at his posthumous sale held by Christie's in Paris, 23-25 February 2009, lot 91.
There are also a number of associated sketches of flying figures, in various media. A good example is in the Cecil French Bequest (loc. cit.). And a further picture is linked thematically if not in composition. Night (Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard, Mass.) is one of a set of six standing figures (the others Dayand the Seasons) that Burne-Jones painted as a decorative scheme for the Liverpool shipowner Frederick Leyland. They date from 1869-70.
Burne-Jones exhibited Evening at the Old Water Colour Society's Pall Mall premises in 1870, together with four other examples. Ever since his election to the Society in 1864, his work had been a source of controversy. It had many devotees, seduced by its intense romanticism and powerful sense of colour, and his pictures were eagerly collected by a group of committed collectors; men like Leyland, Craven, Alexander Ionides and his brother, the wealthy Scottish merchant William Graham, and George Howard, the future Earl of Carlisle. Ten years younger than Burne-Jones, Howard nursed ambitions, hard for an aristocrat to realise, to become an artist himself. They met in 1865 and Burne-Jones gave him some lessons in painting before Howard moved on to another mentor, Alphonse Legros. It was Howard who bought Evening, the first of a long series of works that he was to acquire from the artist over the years. It was destined to hang at 1 Palace Green, the London house that Philip Webb built for George and his wife Rosalind in the late 1860s. There it was later joined by other paintings, notably the great Annunciation (Port Sunlight), exhibted at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1879. Decorative works were also commissioned for the Howards' country properties: Castle Howard in Yorkshire and Naworth Castle and Lanercost Priory in Cumberland.
But while Burne-Jones was in many ways remarkably successful, the novelty of his work brought him brickbats. The critics routinely attacked it, focussing particularly on what they perceived as his bad drawing, and even in the ranks of the OWCS he faced much hostility from older and more conservative members. Matters came to a head in 1870 when objections were raised to the male nude in one of the other pictures he showed that year, Phyllis and Demophoön (Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery). His colleagues, far from supporting him, asked him to withdraw the work, and when the exhibition ended, he resigned. For the next seven years he rarely exhibited, relying on his small circle of devoted patrons for a living, although this period of seclusion was to end dramatically in 1877 when the Grosvenor Gallery opened and the eight large works he exhibited brought him fame overnight.
Press comment on Evening offers a fascinating insight into the way Burne-Jones divided opinion at this date. There was certainly no shortage of animosity. For the Spectator, all the pictures shown in 1870 were 'far-fetched experiments that (had) missed the mark'. The Art Journal saw in Evening 'a creature (that) can neither walk, fly, nor swim; it is a nondescript being, neither fowl nor fish, and yet scarcely human'. The artist had attempted the 'sublime' only to achieve the 'ridiculous'. As for Tom Taylor in the Times, one of Burne-Jones's most persistent denigrators, he sneered at this 'study in bottle-greens' that epitomised the 'imperfect drawing' over which he had been wagging a finger at some length.
Others, however, thought differently. 'This painting,' wrote F.G. Stephens in the Athenaeum, 'which is extraordinarily deep and rich in colour, subtle and fine beyond even the artist's wont, is as superb a piece of work as it is possible to conceive'. True, even he had qualms about the 'disproportions' of the figure, muttering about 'grand poetry expressed in bad grammar', but for the 'grace and sentiment' of the painting he had nothing but admiration. Indeed as time passed and critics became used to Burne-Jones's mannerisms, the old cavils about 'grammar' were forgotten. Sidney Colvin, describing the pictures at 1 Palace Green in 1884, saw only the poetic mood that the artist had attempted to capture in Evening. No other artist, he wrote, could have evoked so brilliantly 'this calm, virgin apparition, floating with half-seen face and...exquisite simple action, and lovely drift of hair and drapery, over the mysterious seaward-shelving land, with its bays and promontories and hamlets lying asleep in the cool, blue-glimmering twilight.'
The related works are as follows. Between 1870 and 1873 Burne-Jones painted a pair of watercolours, Vesper and Night, for Frederick Craven, the Manchester businessman who was one of his staunchest patrons at this date (Figs. 1-2). Vesper is a version of our picture, bluer in tone and showing the figure's head in profile rather than profil perdu. Night represents a female figure flying in the opposite direction, her arms outstretched as if feeling her way in the darkness. Both pictures were included in the exhibition devoted to British Symbolism that was mounted by the Tate Gallery in 1997-8. Vesper was illustrated on the cover of the catalogue, as if epitomising the subject of the show.
These works were followed by Luna, an allegorical depiction of the moon similar in style but larger in scale and painted in oil (Fig. 3). The picture was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1878 and bought by Alexander Ionides, the younger brother of Constantine Ionides, whose well-known collection has long been in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Having been 'lost' for many years, Luna found its way into the collection of Yves Saint Laurent, appearing at his posthumous sale held by Christie's in Paris, 23-25 February 2009, lot 91.
There are also a number of associated sketches of flying figures, in various media. A good example is in the Cecil French Bequest (loc. cit.). And a further picture is linked thematically if not in composition. Night (Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard, Mass.) is one of a set of six standing figures (the others Dayand the Seasons) that Burne-Jones painted as a decorative scheme for the Liverpool shipowner Frederick Leyland. They date from 1869-70.
Burne-Jones exhibited Evening at the Old Water Colour Society's Pall Mall premises in 1870, together with four other examples. Ever since his election to the Society in 1864, his work had been a source of controversy. It had many devotees, seduced by its intense romanticism and powerful sense of colour, and his pictures were eagerly collected by a group of committed collectors; men like Leyland, Craven, Alexander Ionides and his brother, the wealthy Scottish merchant William Graham, and George Howard, the future Earl of Carlisle. Ten years younger than Burne-Jones, Howard nursed ambitions, hard for an aristocrat to realise, to become an artist himself. They met in 1865 and Burne-Jones gave him some lessons in painting before Howard moved on to another mentor, Alphonse Legros. It was Howard who bought Evening, the first of a long series of works that he was to acquire from the artist over the years. It was destined to hang at 1 Palace Green, the London house that Philip Webb built for George and his wife Rosalind in the late 1860s. There it was later joined by other paintings, notably the great Annunciation (Port Sunlight), exhibted at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1879. Decorative works were also commissioned for the Howards' country properties: Castle Howard in Yorkshire and Naworth Castle and Lanercost Priory in Cumberland.
But while Burne-Jones was in many ways remarkably successful, the novelty of his work brought him brickbats. The critics routinely attacked it, focussing particularly on what they perceived as his bad drawing, and even in the ranks of the OWCS he faced much hostility from older and more conservative members. Matters came to a head in 1870 when objections were raised to the male nude in one of the other pictures he showed that year, Phyllis and Demophoön (Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery). His colleagues, far from supporting him, asked him to withdraw the work, and when the exhibition ended, he resigned. For the next seven years he rarely exhibited, relying on his small circle of devoted patrons for a living, although this period of seclusion was to end dramatically in 1877 when the Grosvenor Gallery opened and the eight large works he exhibited brought him fame overnight.
Press comment on Evening offers a fascinating insight into the way Burne-Jones divided opinion at this date. There was certainly no shortage of animosity. For the Spectator, all the pictures shown in 1870 were 'far-fetched experiments that (had) missed the mark'. The Art Journal saw in Evening 'a creature (that) can neither walk, fly, nor swim; it is a nondescript being, neither fowl nor fish, and yet scarcely human'. The artist had attempted the 'sublime' only to achieve the 'ridiculous'. As for Tom Taylor in the Times, one of Burne-Jones's most persistent denigrators, he sneered at this 'study in bottle-greens' that epitomised the 'imperfect drawing' over which he had been wagging a finger at some length.
Others, however, thought differently. 'This painting,' wrote F.G. Stephens in the Athenaeum, 'which is extraordinarily deep and rich in colour, subtle and fine beyond even the artist's wont, is as superb a piece of work as it is possible to conceive'. True, even he had qualms about the 'disproportions' of the figure, muttering about 'grand poetry expressed in bad grammar', but for the 'grace and sentiment' of the painting he had nothing but admiration. Indeed as time passed and critics became used to Burne-Jones's mannerisms, the old cavils about 'grammar' were forgotten. Sidney Colvin, describing the pictures at 1 Palace Green in 1884, saw only the poetic mood that the artist had attempted to capture in Evening. No other artist, he wrote, could have evoked so brilliantly 'this calm, virgin apparition, floating with half-seen face and...exquisite simple action, and lovely drift of hair and drapery, over the mysterious seaward-shelving land, with its bays and promontories and hamlets lying asleep in the cool, blue-glimmering twilight.'