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Edward Burne-Jones was one of the most important members of the second
phase of Pre-Raphaelitism in the 19th century. He was a firm supporter
of Pre-Raphaelite ideals and a close friend of Rossetti,
whom he had first met in 1857 when he had helped him to decorate the walls
of the Oxford Union Debating Society with frescos. Under Rossetti's influence
he painted a number of highly romantic subjects taken from the Arthurian
legends, as well as myths and scenes from the Bible.
Born
in Birmingham, Burne-Jones was originally destined for the ministry but
changed course when Rossetti urged him to devote himself entirely to painting.
The medieval and mystical elements in the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites
clearly appealed to someone like Burne-Jones who had always been fascinated
by the mythology of the classics, which he had attempted to bring to life
in such medieval romance paintings as The Beguiling of Merlin, Fair Rosamund
and The Madness of Sir Tristan. Most of Burne-Jones' work was a romantic
dream. As he said himself in a letter that he wrote to a friend:
"I mean by a picture a
beautiful romantic dream of something that never was, never will be -
in a light better than ever shone - in a land that no one can define or
remember, only desire - and the forms divinely beautiful..."
By the 1880s Burne-Jones was already
an international figure, and he remained so until his death on 17 June
1898 at Fulham, London. He left this world laden with honours. He had
been given the Legion of Honour, been made a baronet, and awarded many
European prizes. He exhibited only one picture at the Royal Academy, The
Depths of the Sea, which depicted a mermaid carrying down through the
sea a youth whom she had thoughtlessly drowned in the impetuosity of her
love. Burne-Jones' forte lay in the field of decorative design: tapestries,
ceramics and stained glass; he also illustrated many books, a number of
them produced by the Kelmscott Press, which was founded by William
Morris.
Burne-Jones is buried in the small
seaside town of Rottingdean, near Brighton. Burne-Jones' granddaughter
Angela Thirkell became a novelist. Her reminiscences of childhood in London
and Rottingdean - Three Houses - is a fascinating read, giving a new perspective
to the life of the Burne-Jones family.
Edward Burne-Jones was survived by
his son, Philip (1861-1921), who became a portrait painter and was knighted,
but being a highly emotional and unstable man, he committed suicide in
1926.
Burne-Jones' wife, Georgiana, published
The Flower Book and two volume of memoirs after her husband's death.
After Burne-Jones' death in 1898, there
was a memorial exhibition of his work in the winter of 1898 at the New
Gallery. After that, the next exhibition was not to be until 1975, an
indication of how poorly Victorian art was regarded for most of the 20th
century. In 1998 there was a major exhibition of Burne-Jones to celebrate
the centenary of his death. The exhibition travelled to New York, Paris
and Birmingham, Burne-Jones' birthplace. The exhibition catalogue is available
from Amazon: Edward Burne-Jones: Victorian Artist-Dreamer.
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