'Angel Playing a Flageolet', Edward Burne-Jones

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The artist painted two sets of three angels playing different instruments, a small set in oil and a larger one in tempera. Tempera, a medium that involved the fusion of pigments with water and egg yolk, was associated with Italian renaissance artists of the 14th and 15th centuries and was very uncommon in late 19th century Britain.

Burne-Jones| retained this work in his own studio for ten years before parting with it to the dealers Agnew’s, from whom it was immediately bought by George Holt.