Portrait of Sir Edward Burne-Jones

Sir Edward Burne-Jones Painting Reproductions 1 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 Princess Sabra Led to the Dragon, 1866 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Princess Sabra Led to the Dragon 1866

Oil Painting
$1413
Canvas Print
$58.08
SKU: BJS-474
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 108 x 96.6 cm
Private Collection

Green Summer, 1868 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Green Summer 1868

Oil Painting
$1437
Canvas Print
$56.67
SKU: BJS-475
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 64.7 x 106.1 cm
Private Collection

Portrait of Maria Zambaco, 1870 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of Maria Zambaco 1870

Oil Painting
$1332
Canvas Print
$67.18
SKU: BJS-476
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 76 x 55 cm
Clemens-Sels-Museum, Neuss, Germany

Pan and Psyche, c.1872/74 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Pan and Psyche c.1872/74

Oil Painting
$1354
Canvas Print
$86.65
SKU: BJS-477
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 65.1 x 53.3 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

The Beguiling of Merlin, 1874 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Beguiling of Merlin 1874

Oil Painting
$2452
Canvas Print
$54.84
SKU: BJS-478
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 186 x 111 cm
Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Le Chant d'Amour (The Love Song), c.1868/77 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Le Chant d'Amour (The Love Song) c.1868/77

Oil Painting
$3149
Canvas Print
$55.21
SKU: BJS-479
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 114.3 x 155.9 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Pygmalion and the Image-The Godhead Fires, c.1868/78 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Pygmalion and the Image-The Godhead Fires c.1868/78

Oil Painting
$1924
Canvas Print
$57.97
SKU: BJS-480
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 97.5 x 74.9 cm
Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Pygmalion and the Image-The Soul Attains, c.1868/78 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Pygmalion and the Image-The Soul Attains c.1868/78

Oil Painting
$1924
Canvas Print
$57.97
SKU: BJS-481
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 97.5 x 74.9 cm
Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Laus Veneris, 1868 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Laus Veneris 1868

Oil Painting
$10965
Canvas Print
$49.86
SKU: BJS-482
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 122 x 183 cm
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom

The Annunciation, 1879 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Annunciation 1879

Oil Painting
$4034
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: BJS-483
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 250 x 104.5 cm
Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool, United Kingdom

The Mill, c.1872/80 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Mill c.1872/80

Oil Painting
$2055
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: BJS-484
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 90.9 x 197.6 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom

The Tree of Forgiveness, c.1881/82 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Tree of Forgiveness c.1881/82

Oil Painting
$2371
Canvas Print
$50.27
SKU: BJS-485
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 190.5 x 106.7 cm
Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, United Kingdom

The Wheel of Fortune, c.1875/83 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Wheel of Fortune c.1875/83

Oil Painting
$3011
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: BJS-486
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 199 x 100 cm
Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France

King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, 1884 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid 1884

Oil Painting
$3594
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: BJS-487
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 293.4 x 135.9 cm
Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Sibylla Delphica, 1868 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Sibylla Delphica 1868

Oil Painting
$1758
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: BJS-488
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 152.8 x 60.3 cm
Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, United Kingdom

The Depths of the Sea, 1887 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Depths of the Sea 1887

Oil Painting
$1845
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: BJS-489
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 197 x 76 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

The Arming of Perseus, c.1885/88 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Arming of Perseus c.1885/88

Oil Painting
$1591
Canvas Print
$77.08
SKU: BJS-490
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 153 x 127 cm
Private Collection

The Rock of Doom, c.1885/88 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Rock of Doom c.1885/88

Oil Painting
$1610
Canvas Print
$77.85
SKU: BJS-491
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 155 x 130 cm
Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany

The Baleful Head, c.1886/87 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Baleful Head c.1886/87

Oil Painting
$3905
Canvas Print
$53.23
SKU: BJS-492
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 156 x 128 cm
Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany

The Star of Bethlehem, c.1888/91 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Star of Bethlehem c.1888/91

Oil Painting
$4497
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: BJS-493
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 256.5 x 386 cm
Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Sponsa de Libano, 1891 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Sponsa de Libano 1891

Oil Painting
$1845
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: BJS-494
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 332.5 x 155.5 cm
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Love Among the Ruins, 1894 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

Love Among the Ruins 1894

Oil Painting
$2600
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: BJS-495
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 95.3 x 160 cm
United Kingdom National Trust, Wightwick Manor, United Kingdom

The Prioress's Tale, c.1865/98 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Prioress's Tale c.1865/98

Oil Painting
$1546
Canvas Print
$55.60
SKU: BJS-496
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 103.5 x 62.8 cm
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, USA

The Pilgrim at the Gate of Idleness, 1884 by Burne-Jones | Painting Reproduction

The Pilgrim at the Gate of Idleness 1884

Oil Painting
$2219
Canvas Print
$53.84
SKU: BJS-6477
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Original Size: 96.5 x 130.8 cm
Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, USA

Top