The Golden Stairs
The Golden Stairs (Edward Burne-Jones) — The Golden Stairs · Edward Burne-Jones · 1880.
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About this work
- Artist
- Edward Burne-Jones (1833–1898)
- Year
- 1880
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 269.2 × 116.8 cm
- Collection
- Tate Britain, London
- Movement
- Pre-Raphaelite
Eighteen young women in pale classical robes, carrying cymbals, pipes, a violin and a trumpet, descend a curving golden staircase in a tall, narrow canvas, their bare feet and bowed heads making a single flowing rhythm from top to bottom. There is no story; Burne-Jones refused to explain it and the picture has been read as music, as a procession of souls or simply as a design. He worked on it from 1876 to 1880, drawing the figures from a lay model and from friends and daughters of his circle, including Frances Graham and May Morris. It was shown at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1880 and became one of the defining images of the Aesthetic movement. Lord Battersea bequeathed it to the Tate in 1924.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Details & materials
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About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.











