The Days of Creation
by BURNE-JONES, Edward, Watercolour, gouache, shell gold, and platinum paint on linen-covered panel prepared with zinc white ground
About 1860, Burne-Jones turned to watercolour as his primary medium, and in 1864 he was elected an Associate of the Old Water-Colour Society (OWCS). This brought his work before a wide public for the first time. It was never popular with the more conservative members and was often savagely attacked in the press. For seven years after resigning from the OWCS, Burne-Jones hardly exhibited, but at the opening exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery, London, in 1877, he showed eight large works. They included The Beguiling of Merlin (1873-77; Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight), The Mirror of Venus (1873-77; Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon), and The Days of Creation (1871-76; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge). This dramatic revelation of his mature powers established him overnight as the star of the Grosvenor, a key figure in the Aesthetic Movement and one of the leading artists of the day.
In 1871, Burne-Jones began work on the series of The Days of Creation. He worked on the angels off and on through 1876. The series consists of six panels, one for each day, with an angel at rest seated at the bottom of the sixth panel for the seventh day. The custom frame to hold the six panels was designed by Burne-Jones. The primary model for the angels was Jenny, William Morris’s elder daughter, although her younger sister, May, also appears in some panels.
In one panel after another, an angel comes to the fore holding a globe, rather like a large crystal ball. At first, only one angel appears, to be superseded by another in the next panel, and so on, until all six are present in the last panel. As for the angel at the front, each presents a scene associated with the particular day of creation: trees on the third day, for example, a flock of birds on the fifth. The scenes are to some extent mysterious, suggesting more than they show, except perhaps for the last one, of a pale and slender Eve, with a taller, darker Adam. In front of this one, a seventh angel is sitting and playing a stringed instrument - no doubt praising God for the creation. The conception is altogether worthy of the artist, and the globes add a thrilling touch of mystery or miracle.
The Fourth Day panel was cut from its frame during a dinner party in Dunster House at Harvard University in 1970. It has never been recovered.