Portrait of Margaret Mackail, the Artist's Daughter
Maker
Edward Burne-Jones
(British, 1833 - 1898)
ClassificationsPAINTINGS
Dateca. 1888
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionscanvas: 34 1/4 × 21 1/8 in. (87 × 53.7 cm.)
frame: 45 1/2 × 32 in. (115.6 × 81.3 cm.)
DescriptionThis is a three-quarter length portrait of Margaret Mackail, the daughter of the artist Edward Burne-Jones. The sitter is depicted standing and facing slightly right, while holding an open book in her hands.
Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of Russel I. and Hannah S. Kully
Label TextBurne-Jones’s oil paintings often view their subjects through the lens of medieval or Renaissance art and are marked by a dreamy, otherworldly quality. With its restrained composition and muted scheme, this unfinished portrait of the artist’s daughter Margaret is no different. It was probably executed around the time of her marriage. Perhaps his choice to depict her within a walled garden and wearing blue, a color associated with the Virgin Mary, suggests some of a father’s conflicted feelings on losing a daughter to a new husband. Status
On viewObject number2022.1
Edward Burne-Jones
ca. 1893
Object number: 2000.5.478
Edward Burne-Jones
ca. 1935
Object number: 2000.5.1044
