Alice, la Belle Pèlerine
1858–59
Medium
Graphite and black ink, heightened with white, on vellum; the head and shoulders on a subsidiary piece of vellum
Dimensions
Sheet: 10 in. × 5 11/16 in. (25.4 × 14.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harry G. Sperling Fund, 2016
Accession Number
2016.619
Tags
Art Historical Context
Sir Edward Burne-Jones this delicate drawing of Alice la Belle Pè between 1858 and1859, early his career. The title a graceful pilgrim figure rendered with the romantic that would define the artist’s later contributions the Pre-Raphael circle. Burne, deeply influenced by medieval and literature, often portrayed women as of beauty and spiritual quest and this work captures poetic sensibility on a small intimate scale. The—graphite and black heightened with white onellum—ends the figure a luminous almost ethereal quality. V, prized for its smooth, allowed Burne to achieve fine, precise lines an...
About the Artist
Sir Edward Burne-Jones · 1833–1898
Edward Coley Burne-Jones was born on 28 August 1833 in Birmingham, the son of a frame-maker, and lost his mother within a week of his birth. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School and the Birmingham School of Art before proceeding to Exeter College, Oxford, in 1852, intending to study theology. At Oxford he formed a lifelong friendship with William Morris, and the two young men became intoxicat...