Edward Burne-Jones - The Perseus Series

[The Call of Perseus]
[Perseus and the Sea Nymphs]
[Perseus and the Graiae]
[The Finding of Medusa]
[The Death of Medusa]
[The Rock of Doom]
[The Doom Fulfilled]
[The Baleful Head]

These are in the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart.

Only four of the paintings were completed in oil, although full size gouache studies were rendered of all the images.

The Call of Perseus, full size study in Southampton Art Gallery.
Perseus and the Graiae completed work in oil at Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart. Study in private collection, sketches at the Cecil Higgins Gallery and a full size study Southampton Art Gallery.
The Arming of Perseus or Perseus and the Nereids (Sea Nymphs), study in Southampton Art Gallery.
The Finding of Medusa, full size study in Southampton Art Gallery.
The Death of Medusa, full size study in Southampton Art Gallery.
The Birth of Pegasus and Chrysaor, full size study in Southampton Art Gallery.
The Rock of Doom, completed work in oil at Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart; full size study in Southampton Art Gallery.
The Doom Fulfilled, completed work in oil at Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart; full size study in Southampton Art Gallery.
The Baleful Head, completed work in oil at Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart; full size study in Southampton Art Gallery.
Atlas turned to Stone, full size study in Southampton Art Gallery.
Peresus and Andromeda (1876) Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Same composition as Doom Fulfilled.

Two pictures for which studies exist in Southampton England but which do not have completed versions are Atlas Turned to Stone and another version of The Death of Medusa.

http://www.southampton.gov.uk/s-leisure/artsheritage/sotonartgallery/search/view-artwork.asp?acc_num=105&show_page=interpretation

[Perseus with the head of Medusa flys past the unfortunate giant Atlas who is condemned to hold up the sky, represented by a misty globe filled with zodiacal signs. Atlas is turned stone by Medusa’s gaze and transformed into the North African mountain range which bears his name]
http://www.southampton.gov.uk/s-leisure/artsheritage/sotonartgallery/search/search.asp?artist=BURNE-JONES,%20Sir%20Edward%20Coley&match_artist_name=true

The Perseus series are ten cartoons in gouache for a series of large oil paintings commissioned in 1875 for London home of the British statesman and arts patron Arthur Balfour (1848-1930). Pre-Raphaelite Burne-Jones worked on the series for ten years, but never completed all the paintings due to ill health.

The Perseus series is based on a number of Greek myths. Essentially, it is a heroic tale of knight-errantry and the triumph of good over evil. Perseus, son of the God Zeus is sent to rescue the beautiful Andromeda and kill the Gorgon Medusa. The legend has been popular in art since antiquity. Rubens, Titian and Delacroix all painted aspects of it. Burne-Jones depicts the main episodes to form a coherent and engaging narrative

Burne-Jones based his pictures on William Morris's The Doom of King Acrisius from 'The Earthly Paradise'

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/morris/poems/doom.html

http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/bj/paintings/p1.html

http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/agsa/home/Collection/detail.jsp?ecatKey=682

Burne-Jones combined variations on "The Rock of Doom" and "The Doom Fulfilled" in 1876 to produce a painting called "Perseus and Andromeda" now in South Africa.

http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/bj/paintings/newman7.html


http://www.artknowledgenews.com/staatsgalerie-stuttgart-to-show-edward-burne-jones.html


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpCU8tCE1UI


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X122fGHThXU&feature=related


http://www.lbhf.gov.uk/external/beyondburnejones/ARTISTS/edwardcoleyburnejones_studies.htm


http://www.preraphaelites.org/the-collection/1898p46/the-perseus-series-study-of-perseus-in-armour-for-the-finding-of-medusa/


http://www.preraphaelites.org/the-collection/1900p89/the-perseus-series-perseus-and-the-graiae/