| Artist | Edward Burne-Jones |
|---|---|
| Year | 1872-1877 |
| Type | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 186 cm × 111 cm (73 in × 44 in) |
| Location | Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, Merseyside |
The Beguiling of Merlin is a painting by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones which was created between 1872 and 1877.
The painting depicts a scene from Arthurian legend, the infatuation of Merlin with the Lady of the Lake, Nimue. Merlin is shown trapped, helpless in a hawthorn bush as Nimue reads from a book of spells.[1]
The work was commissioned from Burne-Jones by Frederick Richards Leyland, a Liverpool ship-owner and art-collector,[2] in the late 1860s. After a false start blamed on "poor materials" Burne-Jones began work on the painting proper in 1873, finishing the body of the work by the end of 1874; although the painting was not first exhibited until 1877 at the opening exhibition of the Grosvenor Gallery in London.[1]
Burne-Jones used Maria Zambaco, who was probably his mistress from 1866 to 1872, for the model for the head of Nimue.[1]
The painting was purchased by Lord Leverhulme in 1918 and remains in the Lady Lever Art Gallery to the present day.[1]
The painting features on the cover of the novel Possession: A Romance by A. S. Byatt and The Last Pre-Raphaelite by Fiona MacCarthy[3]