On loan
Bewdley Museum (Bewdley, UK): The MacDonald Sisters
- Artist
- Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt 1833–1898
- Medium
- Watercolour and gouache on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 342 × 179 mm
frame: 472 × 310 × 40 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Bequeathed by W. Graham Robertson 1948
- Reference
- N05878
Display caption
This picture depicts Clara von Dewitz, the wife of Marcus Bork, another character from Meinhold's novel 'Sidonia the Sorceress' (see also no.2). Meinhold describes her as 'intelligent, courageous, and faithful, with a quiet, amiable disposition, and of most pious and Christian demeanour'. Burne-Jones conveys her considerate nature through her act of cradling, and thereby protecting, some fledgling doves from the predatory attentions of a black cat. It is likely that the cat is Sidonia's familiar (a spirit or demon that serves a witch). If so, its presence may allude to the grisly death Clara meets at the hands of the evil enchantress.
Gallery label, June 1993
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