The Fitzwilliam Museum owns twenty-nine drawings, all highly-finished as illustrations for a proposed Aeneid of Virgil, as planned by William Morris. Between 1870 and 1875 Morris completed five hand-written volumes and began several more; of these only one was the Aeneid. The Huntington Library owns the manuscript by William Morris HM6439.

See Anna Cox Brinton, A Pre-Raphaelite Aeneid, W. Ritchie, 1934, pp. 17-18;
Georgiana Burne-Jones, Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones, vol. 2, ch. xvii, p. 56.

Provenance: EB-J; Laurence W. Hodson; Hodson sale, Christie's, June 15, 1906, lot 37, bought J. R. Holliday, by whom presented to the Museum, 1927.

All drawings listed below are executed in pencil on paper. The dates given are those inscribed on the drawings by the artist.

1183.1  Venus appearing to Aeneas before Carthage, 1873
1183.2  Aeneas flying from Troy, 1873
1183.3  Aeneas and the harpies, 1873
1183.4  Death of Dido, 1875
1183.5  The Burning of the ships, 1874
1183.6  Aeneas and the sybil in the Underworld, 1874
1183.7  Lavinia in the palace of Latinus, 1874
1183.8  Venus bringing armour to Aeneas, 1874
1183.9  Aeneas slaying Mezentius, 1873
1183.11  Aeneas at the tomb of Mezentius, 1873
1183.12 The Death of Turnus, 1873

The following seventeen drawings are for initial letters:

1183.13  Juno 
1183.14  Letter 'H' Cassandra amid the flames of Troy 
1183.15  Letter 'T' The Golden Bough 
1183.16  Letter 'I' Helen hidden 
1183.17  Neptune 
1183.18  Letter 'D' Troy burning 
1183.19  Tartarus with the punishment of the Damned, 1874 
1183.20  Letter 'D' The passing of Dido, 1874 
1183.21  Letter 'E' The ruins of Priam, 1875 
1183.22  Letter 'P' Dido's Wedding, 1874 
1183.23  Letter 'I' Rumour blowing a horn, 1874 
1183.24  Letter 'Q' Love and Dido, 1874
1183.25  Letter 'E' The Wooden Horse, 1874 
1183.26  Letter 'T' Neptune and Winds, 1874 
1183.27  Letter 'I' Scylla, 1874 
1183.28  Letter 'T' Andromache, 1874 
1183.29  Letter 'P' Polyphemus, 1874

Notes excerpted from July 17th, 1990 letter from Jane A. Munro, Assistant Keeper, Paintings, Drawings and Prints, The Fitzwilliam Museum

Gallery of illustrations featured on the Archive