Woman up a Ladder Smelling Blossom

Woman up a Ladder Smelling Blossom, painted in 1860 and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is an unusually domestic and informal subject for Burne-Jones, whose work almost universally drew on literary, mythological, or religious sources. The image of a woman on a ladder, reaching toward apple or cherry blossom, belongs to the realm of observed English garden life rather than classical myth. It may relate to the Arts and Crafts movement's interest in the beauty of ordinary domestic labour, or to the influence of Rossetti's more intimate early subjects. The V&A holds this as a record of Burne-Jones's early work before his mature style fully asserted itself. The directness and informality of the subject is charming precisely because it is so uncharacteristic of his subsequent career.

The upward-reaching posture creates a strong vertical compositional element — the ladder, the arm, the branch — that gives the small work surprising energy. The blossom is painted with direct observation of spring flowering rather than from classical templates. The colour is fresh and spring-like, with whites and pinks of blossom against blue sky or green leaf.