An Idyll

An Idyll, painted in 1862, belongs to Burne-Jones's early career when he was still working primarily in watercolor and developing his figure style under the direct influence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, whom he had met in 1856. By 1862 he had begun experimenting more seriously with oil, and the Birmingham Museums Trust holds several works from this developmental period. An idyll—meaning a poem or image depicting peaceful, idealized rural or pastoral contentment—was a subject congenial to the nascent Aesthetic Movement's escape from industrial Victorian life into realms of timeless beauty. The work likely depicts figures in a harmonious landscape setting, reflecting Burne-Jones's early absorption of medieval romance imagery filtered through Rossetti's Pre-Raphaelite vision. At this date he had not yet made his first trip to Italy in 1859 fully manifest in his technique, but the influence of Rossetti's medievalism is palpable in such early works.

Oil on canvas from Burne-Jones's early exploratory phase, showing looser handling than his mature work. The palette at this date tends toward rich, saturated colors influenced by Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites rather than the cooler, more classical tones he developed later.