This is one of Burne-Jones’ most striking designs for stained glass. It is one of six designs commissioned for a billiard room in a private house at Newport, Rhode Island in America. Interestingly, the house was named Vinland after the Vikings’ landings on the east coast of America. Morris chose his favourite Norse and Icelandic themes for this commission.
Voyage to Vinland the Good 1884 black chalk by Edward Burne-Jones (1833 - 1898).
A Viking ship in full sail, with oars raised, is tossed upon rough seas; it poises momentarily in the trough of a huge wave. At the prow is a figurehead of a howling wolf; the sail is decorated with a boar.
Heiress Catherine Lorillard Wolfe (1828–1887), later a benefactor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in America, commissioned six designs for the billiard room for Vinland, her house at Newport, Rhode Island, designed as her summer retreat by Robert Swain Peabody. The house was named after the site of the Vikings’ landings on the east coast of America in about 1000 AD.
Burne-Jones designed figures of Norse gods and the Icelandic seafarers who were the first Europeans to reach America. These Northern themes were a favourite of Morris and he selected them. Morris and Company made the picture frame for this design and the stained glass window based on this design. Morris and Company supplied many windows to Burne-Jones’ designs for churches in New York and Boston.
There are these inscriptions on the exhibit:
This exhibit is currently on display. Ref CALMG : 1949.125.98
Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery collection, bequest of Emily and Gordon Bottomley 1949
Image © Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery
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