In Tate Britain
Prints and Drawings Room
View by appointment- Artist
- Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt 1833–1898
- Medium
- Graphite on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 248 × 133 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by Lord Duveen 1925
- Reference
- N04113
Display caption
In 1870 Burne-Jones exhibited 'Phyllis and Demophoon' at the Old Water-Colour Society. The story, treated by Ovid and Chaucer, concerns the love of Phyllis, Queen of Thrace, for Demophoon, one of the Greeks returning home from the Trojan Wars. By the time Demophoon came back to claim his love, Phyllis had been transformed into a barren almond tree. However, the tree burst into blooms of forgiveness when it was embraced. Burne-Jones resigned from the Society after he was asked to remove the watercolour because of the impropriety of its nude depiction of Demophoon. Much later he reworked the subject as an oil painting entitled 'The Tree of Forgiveness' (Lady Lever Art Gallery).
Gallery label, September 2004
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