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The Love Song

1868–77
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 516

Burne-Jones exhibited this painting with the lyrics "Alas, I know a love song, / Sad or happy, each in turn." Cupid, with arrows slung over his shoulder, pumps the organ at right. Burne-Jones associated the scene with his affair with artist and model Maria Zambaco (1843–1914). More broadly, the picture reflects the embrace of music as a model for art that appeals directly to the emotions. As one critic said of this painting, "There is no story: nothing to guess at, but everything to feel." It was first owned by businessman William Graham, who commissioned the Small Briar Rose series displayed nearby. Also on view are works by, and a bust of, Puvis de Chavannes, who championed Burne-Jones’s art in France. Their shared devotion to an idealized and dreamlike past earned Puvis the moniker "the French Burne-Jones."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Love Song
  • Artist: Sir Edward Burne-Jones (British, Birmingham 1833–1898 Fulham)
  • Date: 1868–77
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 45 x 61 3/8 in. (114.3 x 155.9 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: The Alfred N. Punnett Endowment Fund, 1947
  • Object Number: 47.26
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

Audio

Cover Image for 6003. The Love Song

6003. The Love Song

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Armed Men, Sir Edward Burne-Jones British, Graphite, heightened with white chalk, on brown paper
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Summer Snow (in "Good Words for 1863," opp. p. 380)
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