Study of a Young Woman's Head

Edward Burne-Jones died in London on 17 June 1898. A month later, on 16 July, Christie's sold the works still left in his studio by order of his executors, and this canvas was lot 60, catalogued simply as a study of a female head. The London dealers Colnaghi bought it that day. Their label on the back records it as lot 60A, which seems to be a slip in reading the catalogue. Burne-Jones painted it around 1895, in the last years of his life, and the museum does not tie it to any particular finished picture. The young woman is seen in profile against a soft, hazy blue, with no costume or story to place her. In 1905 Colnaghi sold the canvas to Robert Walcott of Boston, who gave it to the Museum of Fine Arts that same year.