The Mirror of Venus

1896

Not on view

Burne-Jones painted this subject for Grosvenor Gallery’s first exhibition, in 1877 (Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon), and his composition encapsulates the emerging Aesthetic style. Specific narrative is avoided, and the sweetly elegant girls—whose faces and forms pay tribute to Sandro Botticelli—convey a mood of dreamy melancholy. Gathered before a strange barren landscape, the maidens are entranced by a reflective pool—the mirror of the title—and in a lovely visual conceit, the flowered lawn in the foreground crowns their reflected heads. Etched with great delicacy by the French-trained, Polish-born Jaskinski, the print was published in London and Berlin, testifying to Burne-Jones’s international appeal.

Artwork Details

Title: The Mirror of Venus
Artist: After Sir Edward Burne-Jones (British, Birmingham 1833–1898 Fulham)
Etcher: Félix Jasinski (Polish, 1862–1901 Puteaux, Hauts-de-Seine)
Publisher: Arthur Tooth & Sons (London)
Printer: A. Salmon and Ardail (French, active 1863–96)
Publisher: The Fine Art Society, London
Publisher: Stiefbold & Company (Berlin)
Publisher: The Printsellers' Association, London (British, established 1847)
Date: 1896
Medium: Etching on imitation vellum; proof
Dimensions: Image: 12 5/8 × 20 3/8 in. (32.1 × 51.8 cm)
Sheet: 18 1/2 × 25 9/16 in. (47 × 65 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959
Object Number: 59.592.20
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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