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DESCRIPTION:
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A fine example of the many caricatures by Burne-Jones of his closest friend, William Morris, this drawing expresses both his great affection for his friend and his preoccupation with Morris's increasing stoutness. Morris's serious interest in Iceland dates from 1868 when he began translating the sagas with Eirikr Magnusson; his first visit in 1871 was a watershed in his life. It was followed by a second visit in 1873. Part of his reason for leaving England in the summer of 1871 was to allow his wife, Jane, to spend the summer with Rossetti at Kelmscott Manor, the house that the two men had leased together in Oxfordshire. At this emotional crisis in his life, Iceland inspired and revitalised Morris. The country was then very little visited and was still fairly primitive: '...The journey was ...one that had to be taken in adventurous explorer's fashion, with guides and a string of packhorses...it was a prolonged picnic spiced by hard living and rough riding.'(1) Burne-Jones was much amused by Morris's account of his adventures and drew a series of caricatures to illustrate them; others show Morris riding a little Icelandic pony, or dressed as an Eskimo and eating a fish.
Morris, a hearty eater and drinker, had begun to put on weight soon after his marriage in 1859 and was often teased on this score; there is a story of his friends taking in the seams of his waistcoat overnight, so that it seemed that he had suddenly grown extremely fat.
Burne-Jones was repelled by obesity, and occasionally his caricatures of Morris's stoutness, like his caricatures of fat ladies, seem designed to give relief to a concern which was almost obsessive. One drawing of Morris in the British museum is inscribed, `all more arse' (all Morris), a description appropriate here also.
1. J.W. Mackail, The Life of William Morris, 2 volumes, London, 1899, volume 1, page 241.
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