Rarely seen painting showing entwined lovers to appear at auction more than a century since it was last publicly exhibited
An important and rarely seen painting by Edward Burne-Jones is to appear at auction more than 100 years after it was last publicly exhibited.
Love among the Ruins , which features two entwined lovers, was regarded as one of his finest works in its day and might weaken the knees of anyone who calls themselves a romantic.
Christie's head of British drawings and watercolours, Harriet Drummond, said: "It is incredibly beautiful … There is something about this image with the two lovers entwined in a ruin with briar roses growing towards them that is incredibly haunting. It is a really moving image."
The painting has extra poignancy because the model was Maria Zambaco, a tempestuous Greek woman who is believed to be possibly the artist's true love and a million miles from the nature of his strait-laced and quakerish wife.
Burne-Jones and Zambaco had a passionate affair but, such were the strictures of Victorian England, they could never be together. The relationship affected his health and when he tried to end the affair Zambaco tried to drown herself in Regent's Canal in London.
The painting, which takes its name from a Robert Browning poem, "was enormously popular and highly regarded at the time", said Drummond.
"There were many comments about it being the most beautiful and important thing he'd ever produced. Every single detail works. He had it on the easel for about three years and you can feel the love and passion that went into it."
It was first exhibited at the Dudley Gallery in London in 1873 and was asked for repeatedly after being displayed at important shows such as Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1878 and the inaugural exhibition of the Birmingham Art Gallery in 1885-86.
Although it is a watercolour, the paint is mixed with bodycolour and gum arabic "so it presents like an oil", said Drummond.
A later replica that Burne-Jones made in oil hangs in the National Trust property at Wightwick and featured in the recent Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at Tate Britain.
Love Among the Ruins last appeared at auction in 1958 when it was bought for what now sounds like a paltry sum – 480 guineas or £500. When it is sold in London on 11 July it is expected to set a new record for the artist with an estimate of between £3m-£5m.
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