Notable sales

This remarkable red chalk drawing, which has been in a private collection for the last

40 years, was made by Burne-Jones in the mid-1860s.  Augusta Jones was his favourite

early model whom he described in his Memorials as ‘a noble looking girl’.  She was the

sister of Mary Sandys, the common-law wife of the painter Frederick Sandys (1829-

1904). 

Perhaps the most well-known depiction of Augusta Jones is as Princess Sabra in The

Princess in the Garden, painted in 1866, and now in the Musee d’Orsay, Paris.  She also

appears in Burne-Jones’s Astrologia (Private Collection) wearing the same billowing

sleeves.  A red chalk drawing (32 x 25cm) showing just her head in close-up has recently

been acquired by the National Trust for Wightwick Manor (see Burlington Magazine,

vol. CL111, April, 2011) ,and there is a further less finished drawing (180 x 230mm) in  

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

 There are few Pre-Raphaelite drawings which show such a deeply personal response to

 the sitter.  In this drawing, Burne-Jones has combined the beauty and grace of the

 model whilst making her a thoughtful and psychologically interesting sitter.