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

Status

On view

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. 

Object number2022.1