Saint Cecilia

MORRIS AND COMPANY STAINED GLASS

Saint Cecilia.

Stained glass panel designed by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898) and made by Morris & Company c.1897

The figure of St Cecilia was originally designed in 1867 by Burne-Jones for a Morris & Company window at St Saviour’s church, Leeds. It was subsequently re-used for several later windows, including one at Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge (1873). This version was made c.1897 for The Hill at Witley. The house had originally been the Surrey home of the Victorian watercolour-painter Myles Birkett Foster, for whom Morris & Company carried out extensive interior decorations in the 1860s, including furniture, stained glass, and tile panels illustrating fairy stories, one of which, Beauty and the Beast, is now in the Gallery’s collection. The subsequent owner of the house continued to patronise Morris & Company, commissioning this stained glass window and its companion panel showing the figure of Flora.