Beschreibung:

Sir Frederick William Burton RHA RWS (1816-1900) Weary Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour, with gum arabic, 43 x 61cm (17 x 24'' ) Signed with initials and dated 'F.W.B/ 1866', signed again and distinctly inscribed 'Weary/Fred. W. Burton/No 2/purchased by me in 1879/W.G'(on the artist's label attached to the frame) Provenance: Agnew's, London Exhibited: London, Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, 63rd Exhibition, 1867, no. 139. Leeds, Exhibition of Works of Art, 1868. Literature: Illustrated London News, 4 May 1867, p. 447. Athenaeum, no. 2062,4 May 1867, p.595. Christie's Irish Sale, May 17 2001, p 114-115, illustrated. When Weary appeared at OWCS in 1867, Burton had just turned fifty-one. It was eleven years since his election to full membership, and three more would elapse before his resignation with Burne-Jones. Burne-Jones himself was showing four works, including St Theaphilus and the Angel. This important picture, since destroyed, was discussed by Ruskin in a lecture On the Present State of Modern Art which he delivered at the Royal Institution while the exhibition was on. An example of Burton's genre subjects, Weary shows a young Italian girl who has fallen asleep at her spinning. A cat is curled up beside her, emphasising the idea of a noonday rest or siesta. The picture was one of two that Burton exhibited in 1867, the other being entitled Shireen; but this was not, as might be imagined, an Irish subject. ''Mr Burton'', wrote the art critic on the Illustrated London News, ''is represented by a drawing of a sleeping contadina, skilfully foreshortened and glowing with rich yet sober harmony of colour [Weary]; and by a large head of an Oriental beauty, manipulated in a masterly style [Shireen)''. Tom Taylor the art critic on the Times, failed to notice Burton's pictures, but probably not for want of appreciation. At the end of a preliminary piece about watercolour exhibitions in London, published on 29 April, he wrote that he hoped to return to the subject 'in a future article'. This, however, never materialized. On the other hand F.G. Stephens, a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood back in 1848 who had long since abandoned his brushes and now wrote art-criticism for the Athenaeum, was enthusiastic about Burton's work in a review that appeared on 4 May, the same day that saw the publication of the piece in the Illustrated London News. Having discussed Burne-Jones's paintings, Stephens continued: ''Another figure-painter with equal aims to those of Mr Jones - inferior power, with colour, and superior skill in modeling and drawing to his - is Mr F.W. Burton. Two contributions - Weary, an Italian girl sleeping on the steps of a porch? in the perfect repose of exhaustion, and the superbly executed and fancied half-length of a beautiful woman in a Persian dress, called Shireen - will more than sustain the reputation of this artist, high as that is''. Weary could be based on a sketch that Burton had made in Italy, or it may represent a model posed in the studio. Italians were popular as artists' models in Victorian London, being prized both for the grace of their movements and, when posed in the nude, for their fine physique. This girl, if indeed she is such a model, has evidently been asked to don her national dress. It is conceivable that she is the same, very pretty, Italian girl who posed for Burne-Jones in national costume at about this time. His drawing of her in Birmingham Art Gallery is worth comparing. Sir Frederick William Burton RHA RWS (1816-1900) Weary Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour, with gum arabic, 43 x 61cm (17 x 24'' ) Signed with initials and dated 'F.W.B/ 1866', signed again and distinctly inscribed 'Weary/Fred. W. Burton/No 2/purchased by me in 1879/W.G'(on the artist's label attached to the frame) Provenance: Agnew's, London Exhibited: London, Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, 63rd Exhibition, 1867, no. 139. Leeds, Exhibition of Works of Art, 1868. Literature: Illustrated Lond