The adventures of Sir Tristram were chosen and six artists were employed to create designs with Burne-Jones contributing four of them. Three, including this one, The Madness of Sir Tristram, were then worked up into independent watercolours. The resultant glass panels are now in Bradford City Art Gallery. The 23 x 22in (58 x 56cm) work, in watercolour and bodycolour heightened with gum arabic and gold and signed with initials lower left, has been extensively exhibited and will appear in Sotheby’s January 25 auction of Old Master drawings with an estimate of $350,000-450,000.
A rare example of an oil on panel by the Italian artist, it was painted in the 1630s when the artist was at the court of Charles I, and is recorded in the king’s 1636-37 inventory.
It is consigned from a private collection and part of the proceeds will go to benefit the Department of European painting and sculpture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
