The Wheel of Fortune (Burne-Jones)
The Wheel of Fortune is an oil painting on canvas by the British
Prime version
The painting measures 200 cm × 100 cm (79 in × 39 in), with its frame, 259 cm × 151.5 cm (102.0 in × 59.6 in). It employs a dull palette of greys, browns, greens and blues. It was originally conceived as part of the
The tall frame is filled by a gigantic spoked wooden wheel, turned by a giant personification of the goddess Fortune standing in a contrapposto position, wrapped in the voluminous folds of a metallic blue classical gown, head swathed in a matching cloth, with closed eyes cast down. Three smaller male nudes are being carried around by the wheel: at the top, a slave standing on the head of the second, a king with a crown and sceptre, and at the bottom the head and shoulders of a poet with laurel wreath, looking towards Fortune's feet. The nude male figures were influenced by Michelangelo's paintings at the Sistine Chapel. The wheel and the figures fill most of the composition, but fragments of a wall and a tree can be seen in the top left, with a small patch of grey sky.
The completed painting was exhibited at the
After Balfour's death in 1930, it was inherited by his brother, Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour, and sold in 1932 to the vicomte Charles de Noailles, who gave it to his daughter Nathalie de Noailles. It was acquired by the French state in 1980, and allocated to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
Other versions
A second, smaller version in oils on canvas, painted from 1871 to 1885, is in the
National Museum Cardiff has an unfinished version from about 1882, and preparatory sketches are in the Lady Lever Art Gallery.
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The prime version in its frame in the Musée d'Orsay
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Vespertina Quies, 1893, Tate
See also
References
- La Roue de la Fortune, Musée d'Orsay
- Edward Burne-Jones, The Wheel of Fortune, Musée d'Orsay
- Sir Edward Burne-Jones's Wheel of Fortune, victorianweb.org
- The Wheel of Fortune, National Gallery of Victoria
- The Wheel of Fortune, National Museum Wales
- Study for 'The Wheel of Fortune', Lady Lever Art Gallery