The Wheel of Fortune is an oil painting on canvas by the BritishPre-Raphaelite painterEdward Burne-Jones, made from 1875 to 1883. The painting combines classical and medieval themes to present anallegory of the vagaries of life, avanitas, with individual lives elevated or cast down as thewheel of fortune turns. Burne-Jones commented: "My wheel of Fortune is a true-to-life image; it comes to fetch each of us in turn, then it crushes us." Theprime version has been in the collection of theMusée d'Orsay in Paris since 1980.
The painting measures 200 cm × 100 cm (79 in × 39 in), with its frame, 259 cm × 151.5 cm (102.0 in × 59.6 in). It employs a dull palette of greys, browns, greens and blues. It was originally conceived as part of thepredella for an unrealised triptych on theFall of Troy.
The tall frame is filled by a gigantic spoked wooden wheel, turned by a giantpersonification of the goddessFortune standing in acontrapposto position, wrapped in the voluminous folds of a metallic blue classical gown, head swathed in a matching cloth, with closed eyes cast down. Three smaller male nudes are being carried around by the wheel: at the top, a slave standing on the head of the second, a king with a crown and sceptre, and at the bottom the head and shoulders of a poet withlaurel wreath, looking towards Fortune's feet. The nude male figures were influenced byMichelangelo's paintings at theSistine Chapel. The wheel and the figures fill most of the composition, but fragments of a wall and a tree can be seen in the top left, with a small patch of grey sky.
The completed painting was exhibited at theGrosvenor Gallery in London in 1883, and acquired that year by the politicianArthur Balfour, who later served asBritish Prime Minister and was created 1stEarl of Balfour in 1922. It was exhibited at theRoyal Jubilee Exhibition in Manchester in 1887, theBrussels International Exposition in 1897 and at a Burne-Jones exhibition at theNew Gallery in London in 1898.
After Balfour's death in 1930, it was inherited by his brother,Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour, and sold in 1932 to the vicomteCharles de Noailles, who gave it to his daughterNathalie de Noailles. It was acquired by the French state in 1980, and allocated to theMusée d'Orsay in Paris.
A second, smaller version in oils on canvas, painted from 1871 to 1885, is in theNational Gallery of Victoria inMelbourne, Australia. Measuring 151.4 cm × 72.5 cm (59.6 in × 28.5 in), it was acquired as part of theFelton Bequest in 1909. It is displayed in a heavy gildedtabernacle-style frame, a modern reconstruction based on fragments of the original, which has a decorative frieze withcandelabrum ornament andegg and dart outer border, similar to those of other Burne-Jones paintings such as hisVespertina Quies (1893) in Tate Britain.
National Museum Cardiff has an unfinished version from about 1882, and preparatory sketches are in theLady Lever Art Gallery.
