Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898)
Euphrosyne Cassavetti
-
Artworks
William Holman Hunt (1827-1910)
Eugenie Sellers, Study for 'The Lady of Shalott', c 1895Coloured chalks; monogrammed23 x 19 ½ inchesProvenance
By descent in the artist's family until 1977;
Mrs Elizabeth Burt;
offered Sotheby's Belgravia 16 November 1976 (232) bt. in at £35;
Sotherby's Belgravia 5th July 1977 (16) bt. Col. I. Hassan, £71.50;
Sotherby's Belgravia 9 December 1980 (62, repr.) bt. Pym Gallery, £121, on behalf of Hammond Smith, Leister;
Phillips 19 October 1981 (89) bt R.F. Scharf, £140; bt. W. Friedman, Malvern;
Private collection, Worcestershire;
W. Friedman, Malvern, 1982;
Private collection, UK
Exhibitions
Walker art gallery Liverpool, 1969;
Manchester City Art Gallery;
Tullie House 2023
Literature
Holman Hunt: Pre-raphaelitism and The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, 1913 ed, vol II, ill p 310;
Bronkhurst D424;
Judith Bronkhurst, 2006. William Holman Hunt: A Catalogue Raisonne, Paul Mellon Centre BA p 208;
Schleinitz 1907, repr. Plate 138, p 143; Hunt 1913, 2, p 310
In 1893 Hunt wrote to F.J.Shields that the model he needed for 'The Lady of Shalott' must be at least 5 feet 7 ½ inches; he told Burne-Jones that she must also have a long neck as the head was to be bent. Miss Sellers obviously filled the second requirement, as the post of the head is close to that in both versions of the oil painting. Her features probably formed the basis for the Manchester oil sketch, though they have been considerably softened in the painting. Eugenie Sellers (1860-1943) was an English archaeologist who married Arthur Strong in 1897. In 1910 she was to become the first Fellow of Girton College, Cambridge. As with Stella Duckworth, Hunt preferred to base the head of the lady on an acquaintance of his own class rather than a professional model.
