Portrait of Sir Edward Burne-Jones

Sir Edward Burne-Jones Painting Reproductions 4 of 5

1833-1898

English Pre-Raphaelite Painter

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (28 August 1833 - 17 June 1898) was an English artist and designer closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and largely responsible for bringing the Pre-Raphaelites into the mainstream of the British art world, while at the same time executing some of the most exquisite and beautiful artwork of the time.

Burne-Jones was born in Birmingham, the son of a frame-maker at Bennetts Hill, where a blue plaque commemorates his birth. His mother died within six days of his being born, and he was raised by his father and an unsympathetic housekeeper. He attended Birmingham's King Edward VI grammar school, and then studied theology at Exeter College, Oxford. At Oxford he became a friend of William Morris as a consequence of a mutual interest in poetry, and was influenced by John Ruskin. At this time he discovered Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur which was to be so influential in his life.

He studied under Rossetti, but developed his own style influenced by his travels in Italy with Ruskin and others. He had intended to become a church minister, but under Morris's influence decided to become an artist and designer instead. After Oxford, from which he did not take a degree, he became closely involved in the rejuvenation of the tradition of stained glass art in England - his stained glass works include the windows of the Philip Webb-designed St Martin's Church in Brampton, Cumbria.

In 1856 Burne-Jones became engaged to Georgiana MacDonald (1840a€“1920), one of the MacDonald sisters. She was training to be a painter, and was the sister of Burne-Jones's old school friend. The couple married in 1860, after which she made her own work in woodcuts and became a close friend of George Eliot. (Another MacDonald sister married the artist Sir Edward Poynter, a further sister married the ironmaster Alfred Baldwin and was the mother of the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, and yet another sister was the mother of Rudyard Kipling. Kipling and Baldwin were thus Burne-Jones's nephews).

In 1867 Burne-Jones and his wife settled in Fulham, London. Morris later fell in love with Georgiana, but she rejected him. For much of the 1870s Burne-Jones did not exhibit, following a spate of bitterly hostile attacks in the press, and an affair with his Greek model Maria Zambaco which ended with her trying to commit suicide in public.

In 1877, he was persuaded to show eight oil paintings at the Grosvenor Gallery (a new rival to the Royal Academy). These included The Beguiling of Merlin. The timing was right, and he was taken up as a herald and star of the new Aesthetic Movement.

As well as painting, he also worked in a variety of crafts; including designing ceramic tiles, jewellery, tapestries, book illustration (the Kelmscott Press's Chaucer in 1896), and stage costumes.

In 1880 the Burne-Joneses bought Prospect House in Rottingdean, near Brighton in Sussex, as their holiday home, and soon after the next door Aubrey Cottage to create North End House, reflecting the fact that their Fulham home was in North End Road. (Years later, in 1923, Sir Roderick Jones, head of Reuters, and his wife, playwright and novelist Enid Bagnold, were to add the adjacent Gothic House to the property and which became the inspiration and setting for her play The Chalk Garden).

In 1881 he received an honorary degree from Oxford, and was made an Honorary Fellow in 1883. In 1885 he became the President of the Birmingham Society of Artists. In 1894 he was knighted. Devastated by the death of his friend Morris in 1896, Burne-Jones' health declined substantially until his death on 17 June 1898. Six days later, at the intervention of the Prince of Wales, a memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey. It was the first time an artist had been so honoured. Burne-Jones was buried in Rottingdean churchyard, near Brighton, a place he knew through summer family holidays. Long out-of-fashion in the art world, due to Modernist art and Abstract Expressionism, it was not until the mid 1970s that his work began to be re-assessed and once again acclaimed.

Burne-Jones exerted a considerable influence on British painting, as detailed in the large exhibition in 1989 at the Barbican Art Gallery, London. Burne-Jones was also highly influential among French symbolist painters, from 1889. His work also inspired poetry by Swinburne - Swinburne's 1886 Poems & Ballads is dedicated to Burne-Jones.

His troubled son Philip (1861a€“1926) became a successful portrait painter. His adored daughter Margaret (1866a€“1953) married John William Mackail (1850a€“1945); friend and biographer of Morris, and Professor of Poetry at Oxford from 1911a€“1916.

Burne-Jones' studio assistant, Charles Fairfax Murray, went on to a successful art career as a painter in his own right. He later became an important collector and respected art dealer. Between 1903 and 1907 he sold a great many works by Burne-Jones and the Pre-Raphaelites to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, at far below their market worth. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery now has the largest collection of works by Burne-Jones in the world, including the massive watercolour Star of Bethlehem, commissioned for the Gallery in 1897. The paintings are believed by some to have influenced the young J.R.R. Tolkien, then growing up in Birmingham.

Burne-Jones was a very strong influence on the Birmingham Group of artists, from the 1890s onwards.

116 Burne-Jones Paintings

The Days of Creation: The Sixth Day, 1876 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Days of Creation: The Sixth Day 1876

Oil Painting
$2748
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: BJS-6528
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 102.3 x 36 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

Day, 1870 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Day 1870

Oil Painting
$1454
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: BJS-6529
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 121.7 x 45.5 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

Night, 1870 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Night 1870

Oil Painting
$1435
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: BJS-6530
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 122.2 x 45.7 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

Sir Galahad, 1858 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Sir Galahad 1858

Paper Art Print
$47.49
SKU: BJS-6531
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 15.6 x 19.2 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

Helen of Troy, n.d. by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Helen of Troy n.d.

Paper Art Print
$47.49
SKU: BJS-6532
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 26.8 x 14.7 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

Perseus and Andromeda, 1875 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Perseus and Andromeda 1875

Paper Art Print
$47.49
SKU: BJS-6533
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 34.3 x 32.3 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

Head of a Young Woman, 1870 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Head of a Young Woman 1870

Paper Art Print
$47.49
SKU: BJS-6534
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 22.7 x 20.9 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

A Siren, 1896 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

A Siren 1896

Paper Art Print
$47.49
SKU: BJS-6535
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 49.2 x 33 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

Head of a Young Woman, 1870 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Head of a Young Woman 1870

Paper Art Print
$47.49
SKU: BJS-6536
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 27.7 x 22.1 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

Head of a Young Woman, Profile, 1870 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Head of a Young Woman, Profile 1870

Paper Art Print
$47.49
SKU: BJS-6537
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 27.8 x 21.9 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

Portrait of Mrs. Drummond, n.d. by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of Mrs. Drummond n.d.

Paper Art Print
$47.49
SKU: BJS-6538
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 27.2 x 18.1 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

The Wise and Foolish Virgins, n.d. by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Wise and Foolish Virgins n.d.

Paper Art Print
$47.49
SKU: BJS-6539
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: unknown
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

The Mirror of Venus, c.1870/76 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Mirror of Venus c.1870/76

Oil Painting
$5570
Canvas Print
$56.39
SKU: BJS-6540
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 120 x 200 cm
Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal

Heart of the Rose, n.d. by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Heart of the Rose n.d.

Oil Painting
$1507
Canvas Print
$65.99
SKU: BJS-6541
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection

The Briar Rose - The Sleeping Beauty, c.1870/90 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Briar Rose - The Sleeping Beauty c.1870/90

Oil Painting
$3827
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: BJS-6542
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 122 x 229 cm
Private Collection

The Briar Rose - The Prince Enters the Briar Wood, c.1870/90 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Briar Rose - The Prince Enters the Briar Wood c.1870/90

Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: BJS-6543
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 122 x 250 cm
Private Collection

Angeli Ministrantes, 1894 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Angeli Ministrantes 1894

Canvas Print
$76.21
SKU: BJS-6544
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection

Angeli Laudantes, 1894 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Angeli Laudantes 1894

Canvas Print
$77.72
SKU: BJS-6545
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 236.2 x 185 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom

The Fight: St. George Kills the Dragon, 1866 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Fight: St. George Kills the Dragon 1866

Oil Painting
$1547
Canvas Print
$60.46
SKU: BJS-6546
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 105.4 x 130.8 cm
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Beatrice, 1870 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Beatrice 1870

Oil Painting
$1330
Canvas Print
$81.49
SKU: BJS-6547
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 66.7 x 48.9 cm
Private Collection

Earth Mother, 1882 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Earth Mother 1882

Oil Painting
$1235
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: BJS-6548
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: unknown
Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, USA

Temperantia, 1872 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Temperantia 1872

Oil Painting
$1709
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: BJS-6549
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 152.4 x 58.4 cm
Private Collection

Merlin and Nimue, 1861 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Merlin and Nimue 1861

Oil Painting
$1414
Canvas Print
$51.35
SKU: BJS-6550
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: unknown
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom

Spring, c.1869/70 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Spring c.1869/70

Oil Painting
$1318
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: BJS-6551
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 122.5 x 45 cm
Private Collection

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