Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt., ARA, RWS

(British, 1833-1898)

Nude study for attendant figure holding a spear in The Sleep of Arthur in Avalon

Footnotes

Provenance
Major Charles Sydney Goldman M.B.E (1868-1958) Collection, UK.
Thence by descent to the present owner.

Charles Sydney Goldman was a close friend and admirer of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones and the owner of his magnum opus The Sleep of Arthur in Avalon, a vast panoramic canvas depicting the last scene from the legend 'Morte d'Arthur,' which now hangs in the Museo de Arte, Ponce, Puerto Rico. In 1888, Goldman commissioned Angeli Laudantes, a large tapestry by Morris & Co designed by Burne-Jones (sold in these rooms 14 November 2006, lot 207). The work was to be given as a wedding gift to his betrothed, the Hon Agnes Mary Peel, granddaughter of the founder of the British Police Force, the Rt. Hon Sir Robert Peel.

From 1910-18 Goldman served as M.P for Falmouth and Penryn. He spent most of his life in the Transvaal, developed a particular interest in South and East African mining, and had an extensive estate known as Schoongezicht in the Middelburg District. There he became a great friend of Cecil Rhodes. Clearly something of a character, Goldman was caricatured by 'Spy' for Vanity Fair in 1904, presented as 'A self-made African'.

In 1919 Goldman purchased the Nicola Ranch and Town site in British Columbia, Canada, which grew to some 300,000 acres. When in England, Goldman lived at Trefusis House, Falmouth until about 1929, moving to the Jacobean mansion at Yaverland Manor by 1946.

For similar nude studies for the figures in The Sleep of Arthur in Avalon, see Harrison and Waters, Burne-Jones, London, 1973, p. 167, fig. 252.