Hope
Artist: Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (English, 1833β1898)
Date: 1896
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Description
Hope, one of the three theological Virtues, is symbolized here as a prisoner chained indoors, holding a branch of apple blossoms and reaching upward to pull the blue sky down toward her. The slender, vertical format of this painting recalls the fact that many of Burne-Jones's designs were successfully translated into stained-glass windows and textiles. Burne-Jones painted this work for Mrs. Whitin, of Whitinsville, Massachusetts. He had previously worked on a large watercolor version of the same subject.

















