The dark knight
Window shopping... a Pre-Raphaelite study for a stained-glass panel has fetched six figures at Sotheby’s in New York. John Vincent reports.
What, you may wonder, could possibly link a hero of Arthurian legend, a major figure in the PreRaphaelite art movement and a Bradford textile magnate with a passion for stained glass? The answer is an extraordinary picture of the knight Sir Tristram (or Tristan) de Lyonesse by Sir Edward Coley BurneJones, which formed the basis for one of a series of colourful glass panels commissioned by wealthy Walter Dunlop for his home at Harden Grange, Bingley, and which, since 1917, have been with Bradford Museums and Galleries.
The watercolour and bodycolour, entitled The Madness of Sir Tristram, has just fetched $408,500 (£327,250) at an
Old Master Drawings sale at Sotheby’s in New York after surfacing from a private collection.
The knight, revered for his fearlessness in battle and hunting prowess, was chaperoning the beautiful Princess Iseult (or Isoude), daughter of King Anguish (or Angwish) of Ireland, to her wedding to Tristram’s uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, when the pair unwittingly drank a potion that caused them to fall helplessly in love.
In the picture, Burne-Jones (1833-1898), who was fascinated by the chivalrous world of King Arthur and his knights, depicts the moment Sir Tristram, believing his beloved to be having an affair with his friend Sir Kehydius, is driven to madness. He has cast himself out of his castle to live as a vagabond in the forest, surviving thanks to the kindness of herdsmen and shepherds. He is pictured serenading his companions with a harp.
The 1862 image is painted over a study for a stained-glass window, one of 13 commissioned by Bradford textile magnate Walter Dunlop from the newlyformed Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company (later Morris & Co) to decorate Harden Grange. Burne-Jones, a founding partner in the company, contributed four panels to the Sir Tristram cycle, the others being created by Arthur Hughes, Val Prinsep, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris. The Morris company then undertook several more local commissions, supplying windows for Bradford and Bingley churches and carrying out work at Woodbank and Oakwood Hall, Bingley.
The watercolour sold at Sotheby’s has a long and distinguished history, having a succession of high-profile owners, being widely reproduced in literature and appearing at 15 international exhibitions between 1892 and 2007. One owner was Constantine Ionides, who on his death in 1900 left 1,138 major works to the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1906, the picture was acquired by Sir William Tate, 2nd Baronet, eldest son of sugar refiner Sir Henry Tate, who endowed the Tate Gallery in London.