Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones
1833-1898
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones was an English painter, designer, and illustrator, 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 and educated at the University of Oxford. There he became a friend of William Morris as a consequence of a mutual interest in poetry. He was influenced by John Ruskin. Thomas Malory’s “Le Morte d’Arthur” became very influential in his life. Trained by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Burne-Jones shared the Pre-Raphaelites’ concern with restoring to art what they considered the purity of form, stylization, and high moral tone of medieval painting and design.
His paintings, inspired by medieval, classical, and biblical themes, are noted for their sentimentality and dreamlike romanticized style. They are generally considered among the finest works of the Pre-Raphaelite school. They include “King Cophetua” and the “Beggar Maid” (1884, Tate Gallery, London).
Burne-Jones exerted a considerable influence on British painting. 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.
