Traveling to Rome by train, the artist fell asleep and dreamed so vividly of the nine Muses on Mount Helicon that he felt compelled to paint them the moment he arrived at his destination. Burne-Jones wrote of this painting, The Rose Bower (1870-90), "I meant to depict a beautiful dream... in a light better than any light that ever shone... in a land no one can remember..."

SOURCE: The Committee of Sleep by Deirdre Barrett, 2001, p.4. Her source, also secondary: Gates of Horn and Ivory, by Brian Hill, 1968, p.59.

EDITOR'S NOTE

I was skeptical--the painting doesn't seem to match the story. Checking online, I found that his sketchbook from the Rome trip (currently in a New Zealand museum) shows an Etruscan tomb that the composition of Rose Bower clearly echoes. I think Barrett or Hill named the wrong painting--this is clearly a scene from the folktale Briar Rose, also called Sleeping Beauty; Burne-Jones did a whole set of these. No Greek Muses on mountaintops here!

DAYS LATER

I tried broader searches, and at last found this watercolor sketch, Dream of Nine Muses.

I've found no painting based on this. One may exist, but I fear the sketch is all. Less impressive--but this time, genuinely dream-based.

I'm still going through Deirdre Barrett's copious examples of dream creativity and finding a lot of errors like this. The book's still worth reading; the sheer number of examples partly compensates for some duds.

One more thing. Burne-Jones's raw sketch is no better than the sketches I & my friends did in art classes. It's the time & effort he put in on finished pieces he hoped to get paid for that made his best look Old Master-y. (Though some grumble it also made his women look like clones. On tranquilizers.)

So... don't be intimidated by professional artists--their sketches are clunky too! Draw your dreams. No one else can! Better rough than not at all.

--Chris Wayan

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