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Folly: 1231a

An image of Drawing
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Current Location: In storage

Titles

Folly

Maker(s)

Draughtsman: Burne-Jones, Edward

Entities

Categories

Notes

History note: Morris and Co., from whom purchased by J.R. Holliday, July 1901, (£18)

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1927-08) by Holliday, J. R.

Note

On of the personifications of Vice designed for stained glass at Jesus College, Cambridge. Accompanied by the appropriate Virtues at the West end of the nave. Several of the cartoons are listed in the account books, dated August 1875, the year in which Burne-Jones was also working on designs for the Vices painted and carved upon the walls of Mirth's garden in the 'Romaunt of the Rose'. They show clearly the 'use of those elaborately folded and wrinkled draperies which are so characteristic of much of his later work' (Bell). These appear first in the drawing of 'Temperance', 1872-3, but were developed more fully after Burne-Jones' visit to Italy in 1873, when among other exercises, he drew after the black and white designs by artists such as Francesco di Giorgio on the Cathedral floor in Siena.

School or Style

British

Materials used in production

Graphite

Components of the work

Support composed of paper ( laid down)
Image Size Height 508 mm Width 419 mm
Stretched Size Height 671 mm Width 564 mm

Techniques used in production

Drawing (image-making) : Graphite on paper, laid down onto linen, stretched

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: STVLTITIA
  • Location: Down right side
  • Method of creation: Graphite
  • Text: dress green, shot with
  • Location: Margins
  • Method of creation: Graphite
  • Text: Background ----
  • Location: Margins
  • Method of creation: Graphite
  • Text: Globe smoke colour / glass
  • Location: Margins, to left
  • Method of creation: Graphite
  • Text: Red wings
  • Location: Margins, to right
  • Method of creation: Graphite
  • Text: 167
  • Location: Lower right
  • Method of creation: Graphite

References and bibliographic entries

Related exhibitions

Identification numbers

Accession number: 1231a
Primary reference Number: 26617

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Thursday 6 November 2025

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Folly" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/26617 Accessed: 2025-12-05 22:47:33

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/26617 |title=Folly |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-05 22:47:33|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-26617

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<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/pdp/pdp2/1231a.jpg"
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        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Folly</figcaption>
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