ABSTRACT
In 1886, Edward Burne-Jones wrote to his studio assistant Thomas Rooke, who was on a sketching tour in France. In 1881, Burne-Jones's long-time friend and patron George Howard commissioned a work for his library in Naworth Castle in Cumberland. Howard allowed Burne-Jones to choose the subject from the Arthurian legend, a mutual interest that united them early in their friendship. The Arthurian Revival of the Victorian era ran parallel to Burne-Jones's life and, to a very real extent, shaped his imagination. During the artist's childhood and adolescence, the legend emerged as the national epic. In 1842 Alfred Tennyson published his first poems on the subject of the mythic king; these were warmly received and the public called for more. In 1842 Tennyson used it to link his name to Arthurian themes for his public. Of all his early Arthurian poems, the 'Morte d'Arthur' proved the most influential.
