Sleeping Maidens, from Briar Rose: Les Profondeurs de la Mer

The tale of Briar Rose, also known as Sleeping Beauty, fascinated the artist Edward Burne-Jones throughout his career. He first depicted the story in the 1860s in a series of decorative tiles, and in the following decade he completed several more paintings of the central moment of tension in the story—when the prince enters the briar rose thicket and is about to end the hundred-years’ curse. Burne-Jones then began a group of four monumental oil paintings first exhibited in 1890. Agnew & Sons published reproductive photogravures of the set in 1892, three of which are part of the collection here at the Smart Museum (see 1980.158, 1980.159, and 1980.160).