Head of Sleeping Attendant from 'Briar Rose'

Head of Sleeping Attendant from 'Briar Rose', painted in 1883 and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is a preparatory study for one of Burne-Jones's most celebrated works: the Briar Rose series. The series, exhibited to great acclaim in 1890, depicted the Sleeping Beauty legend in four large paintings — the garden, the bower, the council chamber, and the rose bower where the sleeping princess lay. The entire court is enchanted into sleep, and the attendant figures in various postures of unconscious repose were among the most praised elements of the series. This 1883 study shows Burne-Jones investigating, seven years before the final exhibition, the specific expression and pose of a sleeping female figure — the quality of suspended, still, sealed-off consciousness that became a defining quality of the finished series.

Burne-Jones applies particular care to rendering sleeping faces — the slightly parted lips, the weight of closed eyelids, the relaxed softening of features — that distinguishes unconscious from merely resting faces. The study shows looser handling than the finished series panels, with the oil medium used more directly to establish flesh tones and hair without the complex layering of the final works.