Edward Burne-Jones: King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid - Cartoon Study

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This is a full size prepatory cartoon for the oil painting exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1884 and now in the Tate Gallery. Although the subject was set down as a ballad in Thomas Percy's 'Reliques of English Poetry' (1612), Burne-Jones's inspiration was more likely to have been Tennyson's poem 'The Beggar Maid'. He seems to have turned to the seventeenth-century source, however, for this striking image of the beggar maid Penelophon's bewilderment at the king's proposal of marriage: The beggar blusheth scarlet red, And straight again as pale as lead, But not a word at all was said, She was in such amaze. [shortcode] [short-description] • Artist: Edward Burne-Jones• Artwork: King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid - Cartoon Study• Date of Work: 1883 [/short-description][/details] [/shortcode] Show more