Burne-Jones, the Pre-Raphaelite painter and leader of the Aesthetic Movement is celebrated in this biographical, art and reference title that reproduces many of his works. Born in Birmingham, the son of a craftsman, Burne-Jones showed precocious ability at school. At Oxford University he met William Morris where they established a mutual interest in art. Their first important influence was that of one of the founding fathers of Pre-Raphaelitism, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, with whom in 1857 they painted murals at the Oxford Union. After Oxford his painting career developed and he rapidly established his position as the leader of the Aesthetic Movement. Burne-Jones also worked for Morris's firm, supplying designs for stained glass, tapestries, tiles and other products, including his own illustrations for the celebrated Kelmscott Chaucer.
The friendship between William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones began when they met as undergraduates in 1853 and--despite their differences in temperament and in attitudes to political engagement--lasted until Morris's death in 1896. This friendship was one of the defining features of both their lives, and yet the overlap in their artistic projects has not previously been considered in detail. In this deeply thoughtful book, Caroline Arscott explores particular aspects of the paintings of Burne-Jones and the designs of Morris and concludes that there are close interconnections in theme, allusion, and formal strategy between the works of the two men. She suggests that themes of bodily pain, desire and appetite are central to their vision. Through careful readings of Burne-Jones's painting and Morris's designs for printed wallpapers and textiles, she shows that it is possible to bring together fine art and design in a linked discussion that illuminates the projects of both artists. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
This publication is issued in conjunction with the 1998 exhibition of the same name held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and scheduled for venues in England and France. Burnes-Jones (1833-1898) created a style that had widespread influence on both British and European art--a narrative style derived from medieval legend and fused with the influence of Italian Renaissance masters, a style that ceded popularity to a growing taste for abstraction at the end of the 19th century. Now Burne-Jones's star has risen again, and this catalogue contains full discussion of his life and work and representation of his prodigious output of drawings and paintings. 9.5x12.5"Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Accompanying a major exhibition of Burne-Jones's work at Tate Britain, this book looks at what was distinctive about Burne-Jones's art, and charts the course through which he emerged from being an outsider, to being revered as one of the great artists of the European fin de siecle
The prototypical Pre-Raphaelite artist, Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) embodied in his art the glamours of Victorian Romantic painting, harking back to an Arthurian Medieval England of chivalry, virtue, Arcadian delight and dreamy sensuality. "I mean by a picture a beautiful, romantic dream of something that never was, never will be," he once wrote, "in a light better than any light that ever shone--in a land no one can define or remember, only desire." Burne-Jones' fantasies of an ideal Albion offered solace against the onset of the Industrial Revolution, which had increasingly come to determine urban life in Victorian Britain, and which his close friend William Morris had also critiqued in his bestselling poetry book The Earthly Paradise (1868). This volume explores Burne-Jones' vision of an "Earthly Paradise" as expressed in painting cycles such as Perseus, Amor and Psyche, St George and Briar Rose, and his wonderful Arthurian tapestry sequences and book illustrations. It also opens up the artist's more practical efforts to secure this earthly paradise through the domestic crafts, rejuvenating the Victorian interior through Medieval precedents: carpets, textiles, stained glass windows, furniture and other Arts and Crafts objects. In emphasizing the conceptual unity of Burne-Jones' painting cycles and domestic designs, this monograph reveals his vision to be a coherent expression and longing for a finer world.Edward Burne-Jones was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he met his future collaborators, the artist-poets William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, under whose influence he left Oxford without graduating. From his first major exhibition in 1877, Burne-Jones was a hit with the English public; his 1884 painting "King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid" remains a classic expression of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood sensibility. After his death in 1898, Burne-Jones' legacy became most apparent in the decorative arts.
Edward Burne-Jones, member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood is renowned for his beautiful but usually melancholy evocations of a mythical, literary, ancient or medieval world, as well as his life-long friendship with William Morris. It will surprise many therefore to discover that he was a talented caricaturist and comic sketch artist. This charming book reveals a man brimming with imagination, a keen eye and impish sense of humour who took delight in drawing to amuse and entertain. His witty but affectionate caricatures of friends and family feature familiar faces, such as Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, while his self-caricatures are endearingly self-deprecating. Accompanying these are enchanting sketches he created to illustrate letters and entertain children, and an introduction discussing the life and work of the artist in wider context. Beautifully illustrated with rarely published pieces from the large collection at the British Museum, this book provides an insight into another side of Burne-Jones and illuminates the personality and relationships of one of the most beloved English romantic painters.
The Kelmscott Chaucer is the most memorable and beautiful edition of the complete works of the first great English poet. Next to The Gutenberg Bible, it is considered the outstanding typographic achievement of all time. There are 87 full-page illustrations by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and the borders, decorations and initials are drawn byWilliam Morris himself. Only 425 copies of this magnificent work were produced in 1896, and this beautiful monochrome facsimile, slightly smaller than the original, makes this glorious book available to all. A fascinating Introduction by Nicholas Barker places the book and its importance in context. The main text is followed by a black and white facsimile of ANoteby William Morris on his Aims in Founding the Kelmscott Press, together with a Short History of the Press by S C Cockerell.
This biography traces Edward Burne-Jones's life and suggests a deeper understanding of his work. It tells of his beginnings as a solitary child in Birmingham, the only son of a not too successful picture-framer, and his formative years at Oxford where, with William Morris, he felt the powerful influence of Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites. In 1860 he married the 19-year-old Georgiana Macdonald. This book describes their life together, Georgie's constant loyalty throughout his periods of illness and his infatuations with striking young women, and his love for his children: he was a slave to his beautiful daughter, Margaret, and bewildered by his difficult son, Phil. But Burne-Jones was, in fact, a sympathetic man, and a great wit. This edition has been brought back into print to coincide with the centenary of Burne-Jones's death.
