On loan
KODE Art Museums and Composer Homes (Bergen, Norway): Edward Burne-Jones: The Pre-Raphaelites and the North
- Artist
- Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt 1833–1898
- Medium
- Watercolour and gouache on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 623 × 1030 mm
frame: 740 × 1160 × 60 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1919
- Reference
- N03428
Display caption
According to his wife, Burne-Jones first began a large version of 'The Fountain of Youth' in 1873, which may be identified as this painting. The fountain of immortality was a theme he returned to several times over the years. Although the precise source of the subject is unknown, it is most probably derived from classical mythology. The Muses were thought to visit a spring on Mount Parnassis from which sprang the fountain of Castalia, the source of poetic inspiration.
Gallery label, September 2004
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