"Psyche's Sisters Bidding her Farewell, after Their Second Visit to the Palace," from The Story of Cupid and Psyche, 1965-66

From 1853, when they met at Oxford University, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris were fast friends and lifelong collaborators. Both yearned for the simplicity and authenticity of pre-industrial societies. For Burne-Jones, this took the form of Arthurian knights, ethereal angels and saints, and romantic adventures from classical mythology. The present woodcut is one of Burne-Jones's seventy illustrations to "The Story of Cupid and Psyche," the first of Morris's epic poems comprising The Earthly Paradise (published 1868-70). Morris and his assistants cut woodblocks after Burne-Jones's designs, but the marriage of text and image on the page was deemed unsatisfactory and the plan abandoned. However, Burne-Jones revisited the designs throughout his lifetime as inspiration for other paintings and decorative schemes.