Edward Burne-Jones

Edward Burne-Jones

A lecture by Alan Read

Edward Burne-Jones embodies many of the principles of the Pre-Raphaelites though he was not one of the original seven members. Inspired by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and encouraged by the Pre-Raphaelites’ great champion John Ruskin, Burne-Jones had a particular talent for story-telling and skill at capturing the melancholy in winsomely beautiful women. As a student at Oxford Burne-Jones befriended William Morris and they became co-founders of Morris, Marshall, Faulkener & Co., a firm providing furnishings and decorative arts. It was here that Burne-Jones found his true metier as a designer of stained glass, creating some of the most sumptuously beautiful windows of the Victorian era. This lecture examines the life and career of Burne-Jones from humble beginnings in Birmingham to the title of baronet and a memorial service in Westminster Abbey. It considers the work of this great Victoria artist and his achievements in painting and applied arts. Often referred to as a member of the ‘Second Generation Pre-Raphaelites’, this lecture argues that Burne-Jones was actually the most complete Pre-Raphaelite and was responsible for the movement bearing fruit and maturing into the Aesthetic Movement and Symbolism which dominated European art at the end of the nineteenth century. Rather than the Last of the Pre-Raphaelites (as he has been called) perhaps Burne-Jones should be recognised as the First of the Moderns.