The Golden Stairs

A procession of eighteen young women in pale classical robes winds down a curving spiral staircase, carrying musical instruments, their faces grave and dreamlike. Where are they going? What is the occasion? Burne-Jones refused to say — “I have no story,” he insisted; the picture is pure mood and rhythm, a piece of visual music with no plot at all. It was a quietly revolutionary idea, a painting that means only its own beauty, and it points straight toward the abstract art of the next century. The models included Frances Graham and the young Frances Kinsley; the effect is of a dream you can’t interpret and don’t want to end.

Maker

Edward Burne-Jones (1833 to 1898)

Date

1880

Medium of the original

Painting

Original held by

Tate Britain, London

Credit

Tate Britain, London · via Wikimedia Commons

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00658