Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt., A.R.A., R.W.S.

Simon Dickinson, London, where purchased in 2004 by the present owner

The sheet has been laid onto canvas, in overall good condition. Some specks of surface dirt. There are some minor nicks along the upper edge and a minor tear in the upper right corner. Some further minor nick along the lower edge and a minor tear in the lower right corner. A very small indent is visible below the pink flower by her feet. All of these are only visible upon close inspection. Held in a Grosvenor Gallery frame (possibly original) and under glass, ready to hang; unexamined out of frame.
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This monumental and dramatic watercolour probably dates to the mid-1890s and is an enlarged and elaborated version of a drawing in gold paint on prepared paper dated 1893 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford). The smaller drawing was given by Burne-Jones to his platonic but close friend Helen Gaskell, one of the many gifts of pictures that he presented to her as a mark of his friendship. In both pictures, the solitary figure of the woman lifting her arms to the heavens is probably intended to depict Spes, the Roman Goddess of Hope. She is clad in a gown of deep-green, the colour associated with Hope by the ancients and chosen by Burne-Jones' friend Rossetti to represent the hope of resurrection for Proserpine (Tate). At her feet are briar-roses and white lilies, symbolic of love and birth - associated with the birth of Venus and the annunciation of the Madonna. The blooming flowers pushing their heads Heavenward are generic symbols of rejuvenation and rebirth but they also have particular symbolism for the artist as they feature significantly in his paintings. Wild-roses are particularly associated with Burne-Jones' Briar Rose series of paintings (Faringdon Collection, Buscot Park, Oxfordshire) and also with his pictorial saga of Cupid and Psyche.

The allegory of 'Hope' was one that Burne-Jones painted on several occasions during his career. The earliest known depiction was one of Burne-Jones' first attempts at painting in oils, made c.1862. It showed a red-haired woman in a voluminous- sleeved Venetian gown holding a ball inscribed with the same proverb that gives the present picture its title. The picture was similar to the half-length portraits by Burne-Jones' mentor Dante Gabriel Rossetti and although the original is lost, it is known from a replica by Burne-Jones' assistant Edward Clifford and from an oil sketch (private collection). This depiction of Hope shared little with Burne-Jones later paintings of Spes, other than the subject.

In January 1871 Burne-Jones designed three cartoons for the windows of the nave at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford for Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. They portrayed the three Christian virtues and each cartoon was later painted over in watercolour to form independent works of art; Faith (Vancouver Art Gallery) and Hope (Dunedin Public Art Gallery) in 1871, and Charity (private collection) in 1872. Burne-Jones preferred sets of four images and therefore added Temperance (private collection) to the set of watercolours in 1872. In 1896 when Burne-Jones was commissioned to paint an oil for a private collector in Massachusetts, he first chose to depict Aurora, Goddess of the Dawn. However, grief-stricken following the death of his great friend William Morris in the same year, Burne-Jones proposed to paint a replica of the Hope watercolour instead (Museum of Fine Art, Boston). This picture was close in inspiration to the present picture and also depicted a lone maiden in green robes reaching up to an enigmatic heavenly cloud. However in this picture, she is imprisoned and enchained, whilst in If Hope were not, Heart Should Break the figure is more optimistic as the woman is freed from her tomb and about to take flight towards the starry sky.

In the library at New College, Oxford is a pencil drawing dedicated by Burne-Jones to Sir Alfred Milner dated April 15 1897. Inscribed 'SPES' it depicts a woman with arms raised aloft to a starry sky, climbing a hill. It relates closely (although a mirror image) to the present watercolour which appears to be one of two versions of Hope painted in 1897, one seen in the background of a photograph of children from the East End slums visiting the Burne-Jones exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1901. The only perceivable difference between the two versions, is the addition of the swirling blue-green veil in the present picture.

Ethereal flying figures were a theme particularly explored by Burne-Jones in the 1890s in a series of remarkably powerful watercolours. These pictures are his most Symbolist experiments and evoke the style of several of his contemporaries who were moved by a desire to depict psychological and emotional states of mind. The subject of Hope had been depicted by Burne-Jones' friend George Frederic Watts in his most famous and celebrated painting and it is likely that Burne-Jones had Watts' image in mind when he created his own highly symbolic picture.