The Village Church, Rottingdean by Sir Philip Burne-Jones, Bt. 1861-1926. Signed with monogram and dated 1891. Water colour on paper: 9 1/16 x 12 1/2 inches, 23 x 32 cm.
Exhibited: London, New Gallery, 1892, Summer Exhibition; London, Dowdeswell Galleries, April-May 1914, Works by Sir Philip Burne-Jones
Commentary by Hilary Morgan
Philip Burne-Jones's cousin, Rudyard Kipling, commented that Phil 'would be greater if he were stuck on a desert island with nothing but paints and canvas and no society' (Letter to Margaret Mackail, 1889). This, however, referred to the ease with which he was distracted from his painting. Individual works are often very fine, and as his niece, Angela Thirkell, commented, 'he had a genuine gift for landscapes' (Thirkell, 1932).
This watercolour of the low-towered Rottingdean Church is an excellent example of his landscape painting, which is less well-known today than his portraiture. Rottingdean became his father's summer home in 1880, and the church lies almost opposite the family home there, North End House. Philip Burne-Jones's approach to landscape owes little to his father's art, but comparisons might perhaps be drawn with the watercolours of his uncle, Edward John Poynter. Interestingly, Poynter showed a group of watercolours of the Sussex south downs in the previous New Gallery summer exhibition (Athenaeum, 1891).
Related Material
- The Parish Church of St Margaret (front)
- The Parish Church of St Margaret (side view)
- Kipling in Rottingdean, Sussex (1897-1902)
- The Elms
- North End House
- Kipling's Garden
References
Athenaeum, 1891.
Kipling, Ruyard. "Letter to Margaret Mackail, 11 February, 1889" in Ina Taylor, Victorian Sisters. London: Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 1987.
Morgan, Hilary and Nahum, Peter. Burne-Jones, The Pre-Raphaelites and Their Century. London: Peter Nahum, 1989. Catalogue number 146.
Thirkell, Angela. Three Houses. London: Oxford University Press, 1931.
Peter Nahum Ltd, London has most generously given its permission to use in the Victorian Web information, images, and text from its catalogues, and this generosity has led to the creation of hundreds of the site's most valuable documents on painting, drawing, and sculpture. The copyright on text and images from their catalogues remains, of course, with Peter Nahum Ltd. Readers should consult the website of Peter Nahum at the Leicester Galleries to obtain information about recent exhibitions and to order their catalogues. [GPL]
Last modified 21 January 2002