Sleep, by William Shakespeare Burton (1824-1916).Watercolour. 8 ¾ x 7 ¼ inches (22.3 x 18.4 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy of ©2010 Christie's Images Limited, shown here by kind permission (right click disabled; not to be downloaded).
This small watercolour is dated January 11, 1866 on the verso, so it was painted in the same month as The Love Letter which was sold at Christie's, London as part of the Forbes Collection on 20 February 2003, lot 260. Burton's second wife Mina Elizabeth Adlington was thought to be the model for this watercolour. It is possible that the present watercolour depicts Burton himself with his new wife. There is a strong resemblance between the male figure seated at the table and a photograph of the artist at age thirty-eight reprodced in John Purcell's article on Burton on page 240.
The painting shows Burton in an appealing middle-class domestic interior seated at a table and looking lovingly at his sleeping wife. Mina, like the artist himself, was frequently seriously ill and her poor health persited throughout their married life. Growing financial problems forced the Burtons to move house many times throughout the 1860s when they frequently found themselves short on essentials like rent. They often did not live in such agreeable surroundings as shown in this watercolour. One time in the mid-1870s the Burtons had to sell everything they had, including even Mina's wedding ring, to "keep bare life in us." The family's financial woes were due to a combination of Burton's failure to sell his pictures combined with his own frequent poor health.
During their marriage Mina published three novels, Annabel in 1889, Ruling the Planets in 1891 and The Visible to Be in 1892, as well as short stories. The money generated by her writing was a boon to the family's always precarious finances.
Bibliography
Cowling, Mary. "William Shakespeare Burton (1824–1916)." British Art Journal XV No. 2 (Winter 2014/15): 80.
Purcell, John S. "A Veteran Artist: Mr. William Shakespeare Burton," The Englsih Illustrated Magazine XXXV (1906): 238-48.
The Nicolette Wernick Collection British Watercolours and Paintings (1800-1950) . London: Christie's (16 June 2010), lot 10. https://www.christies.com/auction/auction-7919-cks
Created 17 June 2024