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| mid 1880s-mid 1890s Sir Edward Burne-Jones by Harry Furniss pen and ink 31.1 x 18.4 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London |
Edward Burne-Jones became a founding member of William Morris’s decorative art firm in 1861, where he produced countless designs and illustrations for books, tapestries, ceramic tiles, mosaics and stained glass. In 1862, he travelled to Italy where he was introduced to Botticelli, whose formal patterning profoundly influenced his subsequent development as a painter. His typical subject matter derived from medieval and classical legends charged with symbolism. In fact, he was pre-eminent in the Aesthetic movement in England and the Symbolist movement in Europe. A defining characteristic of Burne-Jones as an artist was his wilful blurring of the boundaries between his painting and his decorative work.
For more information on Burne-Jones see part 1, and for earlier works see parts 1 - 12 also.
This is part 13 of a 14-part series on the works of Edward Burne-Jones:
1882-98 The Flower Book an album of 42 drawings
(33 shown here)
© The Trustees of the British Museum:
'Arbor Tristis' (The foot of the Cross)
watercolour on paper 15.8 cm diameter
'Comes He Not?' (A girl watching for her lover from the top of a tower)
watercolour and bodycolour, heightened with gold
31.5 x 23.6 cm
'Day and Night' (Night in the form of a woman heavily draped, calls on day to awake from his sleep and set her free)
watercolour and gouache, heightened with white on paper 31.2 x 23.7 cm
'Fire Tree' (Moses at the burning bush)
watercolour and gouache, heightened with gold 31.6 x 23.2 cm
'Flame Heath' (Brynhild's sleep)
watercolour and bodycolour, heightened with white and gold 31.6 x 23.3 cm
'Golden Cup' (An angel carrying the San Graal past sleeping knights in a wood)
watercolour and bodycolour, heightened with gold
31.6 x 24 cm
'Golden Gate' (Angles bringing out the Sun)
watercolour and bodycolour, heightened with gold
31.6 x 24 cm
'Golden Greeting' (Meeting after death)
watercolour and bodycolour, heightened with gold
31.6 x 23.8 cm
'Golden Shower' (Danaë in the Brazen Tower)
watercolour and bodycolour, heightened with white and gold 31.5 x 23.5 cm
'Golden Thread' (The clue that Ariadne gave to Theseus, to help him through the Cretan Labyrinth)
watercolour and gouache on paper 21.4 x 15.4 cm
'Grave of the Sea' (A drowned man found by a mermaid)
watercolour and gouache, heightened with white on paper 31.5 x 23.9 cm
'Honour's Prize' (A knight following the vision of the San Graal)
watercolour and gouache, heightened with gold on paper 31.6 x 23.5 cm
'Love in a Mist' (A mist which does not rise from the earth but is made if heaven's blue, swirls round the struggling figure of a winged man, who is Love himself, baffled and blinded by its folds)
watercolour and bodycolour 22 x 15 cm
'Morning Glories' (Angels spreading out clouds at dawn)
watercolour and bodycolour, heightened with white and gold on paper 31.6 x 23.5 cm
'Most Bitter Moonseed' (The enemy sowing tares by night)
watercolour and gouache, heightened with gold on paper 31.5 x 23.6 cm
'Traveller's Joy' (The Three Kings first see from afar the Virgin and Child)
watercolour and gouache on paper 20.3 x 15.3 cm
'Wake Dearest' (The Sleeping Beauty)
watercolour and gouache heightened with white and silver on paper31.6 x 23.8 cm
'Wall Tryst' (Thisbe's letter to Pyramus)
watercolour and gouache heightened with white on paper 31.5 x 23.9 cm
'Welcome to the House' (A soul received at Heaven's gate)
watercolour and bodycolour, heightened with gold
30.8 x 23.7 cm
'White Garden' (The Annunciation in a garden of lilies)
watercolour and gouache on paper 30.4 x 23.8 cm
'Witche's [sic] tree' (Nimue beguiling Merlin with enchantment)
watercolour and gouache on paper 31.5 x 23.7 cm
'With the Wind' (Dante's vision of Paolo and Francesca)
watercolour and gouache on paper 31.6 x 23.8 cm
Black Arch Angel (Satan enthroned)
watercolour and bodycolour, touched with gold 15.7 x 15.9 cm
False Mercury (The Dream-god shewing happy dreams of home to sleeping mariners at sea)
watercolour and bodycolour, heightened with gold 15.5 cm diameter
Flower of God (The Annunciation in a cornfield)
watercolour and bodycolour, touched with gold 15.9 x 16 cm
Helen's Tears (Helen weeps that Troy is burning)
watercolour and bodycolour, touched with gold 16.6 cm diameter
Key of Spring (A figure unlocking a tree that the sap may rise)
watercolour and bodycolour, touched with gold 16.9 cm diameter
Love in a Tangle (Fair Rosamond in her labyrinth)
watercolour and bodycolour, touched with gold 16.3 cm diameter
Marvel of the World (Birth of Venus)
watercolour and bodycolour, touched with gold 16.1 x 16 cm
Rose of Heaven (Venus and her doves amongst the stars)
watercolour and bodycolour, touched with gold 15.6 cm diameter
Saturn's Loathing (A thing the most repugnant to the Earth-god: armed men joining battle in a cornfield and trampling the ripe grain under their horses' hoofs)
watercolour and bodycolour, heightened with gold
14.4 x 14.3 cm
Star of Bethlehem (The angel leads the Wise Men by its light)
watercolour and bodycolour, touched with gold and silver 15.8 cm diameter
Venus' looking glass (The full moon is made her mirror)
watercolour and bodycolour, touched with gold 15.5 cm diameter
1884 King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid:
This work was based on Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘The Beggar Maid’. King Cophetua of Ethiopia falls in love with Penelophon, a young woman he sees begging for money. They marry, and she becomes Queen. This work was considered Burne-Jones’s greatest achievement. Critics praised it for its technical skill and for the message that love is more important than wealth and power. Through this painting and its reproduction as a print, Burne-Jones became seen in Europe as the most important symbolist painter of his generation.
1884 King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid
oil on canvas 293.4 x 135.9 cm Tate, London
1883-84 Study of the Maid for ‘King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid’
oil paint and drawing on paper 120.6 x 62.2 cm
Tate, London
1880c Study of a Head for ‘King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid’
oil on panel 35.5 x 25.6 cm
National Museum Wales, Cardiff, UK
1883 Study for 'King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid'
black, red, and white chalk on pink wove paper 45.9 x 30.3 cm
Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
© President and Fellows of Harvard College
1883 Study of a Child's Head for 'King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid'
graphite on off-white wove paper 27.4 x 21.5 cm
Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
© President and Fellows of Harvard College
1883 Study of the Maid for ‘King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid’
graphite on paper 30.2 x 19.1 cm
Tate, London
1884-87 The Ascension stained glass St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham:
1884 The Ascension
design for stained glass window for St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham
brown gouache and charcoal, heightened with white and blue 146.6 x 68 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
1884 The Ascension
stained glass window in St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham
made by Morris & Company
Stained glass
St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham
Stained glass
St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham
Stained glass
St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham
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| 1884 Sara Norton oil on canvas 109.8 x 78.1 cm |
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| 1884 The Pilgrim at the Gate of Idleness oil on canvas 96.5 x 130.8 cm Dallas Museum of Art, Texas |
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| c1884 Cushion Studies chalk on paper 39.3 x 22.2 cm Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford, UK |
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| 1885 A Wood Sprite graphite on cream wove paper 25.2 x 12.5 cm Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA © President and Fellows of Harvard College |
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| 1885 Male Nude graphite on ivory wove paper 22 x 12.3 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1885 Portrait of Laura Lyttelton, née Tennant graphite, black and red chalk, on buff paper 42.6 x 29.6 cm |
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| 1885 Study for the head of a Queen in 'Arthur in Avalon' graphite on paper |
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| 1885 Study for the head of a Queen in 'Arthur in Avalon' graphite on paper 24.4 x 14.9 cm |
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| 1885 Study of a hill fairy for 'Arthur in Avalon' graphite on paper 21 x 14 cm |
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| 1885 The Ascension stained glass made by Morria & Co. Birmingham St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham, UK |
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| 1885 The Ascension detail stained glass made by Morria & Co. Birmingham St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham, UK |
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| 1885 The Raising of Jairus' Daughter design for stained glass ink, watercolour and crayon on paper 72.1 x 61 cm Dublin City Art Gallery, The Hugh Lane |
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| 1885 The Raising of Jairus' Daughter design for stained glass watercolour on paper 72.1 x 61 cm Dublin City Art Gallery, The Hugh Lane |
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| c1885 Flora tapestry 301 x 209.5 cm The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester, UK |
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| c1885 The Last Judgement stained glass made by Morris & Co. St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham, UK |
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| 1886 (made) A Peacock memorial tablet oil and gilt gesso on wood 237.5 x 133 cm Victoria & Albert Museum, London |