'The Sole Remark Likely to Have Been Made by Benjamin Jowett about the Mural Paintings at the Oxford Union', Sir Max Beerbohm

Artwork details

Artist

Sir Max Beerbohm (1872‑1956)

Title

The Sole Remark Likely to Have Been Made by Benjamin Jowett about the Mural Paintings at the Oxford Union

From Rossetti and his Friends

Date 1916

MediumGraphite and watercolour on paper

Dimensionssupport: 451 x 298 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Bequeathed by Sir Hugh Walpole 1941

Reference

A01041

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Display caption

Beerbohm caricatured people and events associated with the charismatic Rossetti in a series of watercolours called 'Rossetti and his Friends'. This watercolour recalls the summer of 1857, when Rossetti led a troupe of young artists, including Morris and Burne-Jones, to Oxford. There they painted the walls of the newly-completed Union building with scenes from Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur. Beerbohm shows Rossetti at work on Sir Launcelot's Vision of the Sanc Grael, for which Burne-Jones posed as Sir Launcelot. Also shown is Benjamin Jowett, an Oxford professor of classics famous for his pithy remarks.

August 2004