Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones

Edward Burne-Jones prints bring the dreamy knights, angels, sleeping princesses and graceful maidens of late Pre-Raphaelite art into your home. Burne-Jones was an English painter and designer, a close partner of William Morris, whose stained glass, paintings and designs defined the Aesthetic Movement. Our collection of fine art prints covers his paintings, stained glass designs, studies for great series such as The Briar Rose and many figure drawings.

About Edward Burne-Jones

Edward Coley Burne Jones was born in Birmingham on 28 August 1833, the son of a picture-frame maker; his mother died within days of his birth. He studied at King Edward VI grammar school and the Birmingham School of Art, then went to Exeter College, Oxford, to study theology. There he met William Morris, and the two, inspired by Ruskin, Tennyson and the Middle Ages, decided under Dante Gabriel Rossetti's influence to become artists instead of clergymen.

In 1856 he became engaged to Georgiana MacDonald, whom he married; their son Philip became a portrait painter and their daughter Margaret married Morris's biographer J. W. Mackail. Burne-Jones was a founding partner of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., designing stained glass, tiles, jewellery, woven hangings and mosaics; his windows can still be found in churches across Britain and beyond.

After bitter press attacks he withdrew from exhibiting for several years, but in 1877 he showed eight paintings, including The Beguiling of Merlin, at the new Grosvenor Gallery and became the star of the Aesthetic Movement. He was made a baronet in 1894. He died in London on 17 June 1898.

Style and Subjects

Burne-Jones's early work follows Rossetti, but by 1870 he had found his own style: tall, pale, graceful figures with dreamy, melancholy faces, set in a dream world of myth, legend and the Bible. His colours are rich but soft, and his compositions flow in long, rhythmic lines.

He loved stories told in series, such as Pygmalion and the Image and The Briar Rose, and he made countless careful studies of heads, drapery and figures for his paintings and designs.

Famous Works

• The Merciful Knight (1863), Birmingham Museums Trust. A knight blessed by a carved Christ for sparing his enemy.
• The Beguiling of Merlin (1872–77), Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight. Nimue enchants Merlin in a flowering hawthorn, shown at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877.
• Pygmalion and the Image (1875–78), Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. A four-part series telling the story of the sculptor and his statue.
• The Golden Stairs (1880), Tate, London. A procession of young women descending a curving stair.
• The Wheel of Fortune (1883), Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Fortune turning her great wheel, with mortals bound to it.
• King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid (1884), Tate, London. A king lays his crown at the feet of a beggar girl.
• The Star of Bethlehem (1890), Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. A vast watercolour of the Adoration of the Magi.
• Hope (1896), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A chained figure reaching upward toward a flowering branch.

Decorating with Burne-Jones Prints

Burne-Jones's pictures suit rooms with a romantic, literary mood: a bedroom, library or reading room. The Pygmalion series makes a beautiful set along a hallway or staircase, and his angels, like Angel Playing on Bells, are lovely in a quiet corner or nursery.

His rich, muted colours work well with William Morris wallpapers and textiles, dark wood and Arts and Crafts furniture.

FAQ

Was Burne-Jones a Pre-Raphaelite?

He was closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subjects, and was inspired by Rossetti, but he belonged to a second generation and became a leading figure of the Aesthetic Movement.

What was Burne-Jones's connection with William Morris?

They met at Oxford and became lifelong friends. Burne-Jones was a founding partner of Morris's design firm and designed stained glass, tiles and woven hangings for it.

What are Burne-Jones's most famous paintings?

The Beguiling of Merlin, The Golden Stairs, King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, The Wheel of Fortune and the Briar Rose series are among his best known.

Where can I see Burne-Jones's work?

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery holds a major collection. Others are at Tate, the Lady Lever Art Gallery, the Musée d'Orsay and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and his stained glass is in churches across Britain.

Related Artists

• Dante Gabriel Rossetti: the Pre-Raphaelite who inspired him to become an artist
• William Morris: his closest friend and design partner
• John William Waterhouse: later painter of myth and legend in the Pre-Raphaelite spirit
• Evelyn De Morgan: painter strongly influenced by his style
• George Frederic Watts: Victorian Symbolist painter of the same circle