The Nun in "Count Burckhardt" (for "Once a Week," September 27, 1862)
After James McNeill Whistler American
Associated with Dalziel Brothers British
Printer Chiswick Press British
Not on view
In 1862 Whistler designed four wood engravings for the London periodical "Once a Week." Many of his Pre-Raphaelite friends were illustrating poems and short stories at this moment and the decade proved to be the start of a new flowering of British illustration. Founded in 1859, "Once a Week" supported the movement and was known as a "journal of the younger men." Whister's image responds to the ballad "Burckhardt von Keller" which tells of a count bewitched and then consumed by a magical serpent-like woman, leaving his bethrothed Clara to wonder what has befallen him. Related lines read: " Nor rode he again at even-tide, / To the Lady Clara his plighted bride. / Weep not, Clara, weeping is vain; / Tears will not bring him back again. / Long at the turret thy watch mayst keep, / Wilt nevermore see him climb the steep..." This is a proof of the wood engraving published September 27, 1862.
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