Late bloomer …
Created by the young gun who hung around Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s studio absorbing everything he could, this painting, produced between 1870 and 1873, marks a last great flowering of the pre-Raphaelite style: the plight of illicit lovers; the vivid colours; the hallucinogenic detail. It would soon evolve into the flouncy, morally ungrounded aesthetic movement.
Greece is the word …
The title is from Browning’s poem but the tragic, lovelorn mood is rooted in Burne-Jones’s own life. The woman is inspired by his former mistress, the Greek heiress Maria Zambaco.
Bad romance …
When he painted this 5ft watercolour-cum-gouache the scandalous affair was over. Their elopement had failed and Zambaco had attempted suicide. She would haunt him for the rest of his life, though, occasionally reappearing in his work as an auburn temptress.
The big money …
In 2013, it sold for £14.8m at auction, almost three times its top estimate and the most ever realised for a pre-Raphaelite work.
