A Bathing Beauty: Emma Frank by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt ARA

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A Bathing Beauty: Emma Frank

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt ARA (1833-1898)

c. 1873

Pencil on white paper

7 x 4 3/4 inches; 17.5 x 11.5 cm..

Companion piece: A Bathing Beauty: Holy Bible

Bertram Brook (later the H. H. the Tuan Muda of Sarawak), drawn for him by the artist; Gladys Brook (H. H. the Dayang Muda of Sarawak); Lady Bryant; Sotheby's Belgravia, 29 June 1976 (lot 246).

"Burne-Jones was both fascinated and offended by what he called 'Fat Ladies' or 'Prominent Women' and a complete a whole series of drawings on this theme. The sexual original of this distaste is suggested by a recurrent dream that Burne-Jones had in which he recalls, '. . . I marry very undesirable, hairy fat women and wake disgusted'" (Fitzgerald, 189).

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Bibliography

H. H. the Dayang Muda of Sarawak. Relations and Complications. 1929.

Fitzgerald, Penelope. Edward Burne-Jones . 2nd ed. London, 1989.

Waters, Bill. Burne-Jones -- A Quest for Love: Works by Sir Edward Burne-Jones Bt and Related Works by Contemporary Artists. London: Peter Nahum, 1993. Catalogue number 8.

Last modified 2001