Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones

Edward Coley Burne-Jones was born in Birmingham on 28th August 1833. In 1844 he enrolled in King Edward's School, Birmingham, where he showed clear evidence of the scholarship that later distinguished his paintings. Upon completing his studies he travelled to Exeter College, Oxford 1853, intending to enter the church. There he met his lifelong friend and collaborator William Morris. Inspired by reading Ruskin and seeing Pre-Raphaelite pictures, the pair resolved to devote themselves to art. After being introduced to Dante Gabriel Rossetti in early 1856, Burne-Jones received a few informal lessons from Rossetti himself, but otherwise as an artist he was virtually self-taught. His early work, mainly small pen drawings and watercolours, show the strong influence of Rossetti and in 1857 he was one of the young artists recruited by him to paint murals in the Oxford Union. In 1861, together with Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown and others, he helped William Morris found the firm of Morris, Marshell, Faulkner and Co. Although Burne-Jones received a steady flow of private commissions, his work was met with a certain level of hostility from the public who raised objection to the nudity of some of his subjects and his unorthodox painting style. It was only after a hugely successful opening exhibition of the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877 that Burne-Jones found sudden fame and was placed at the forefront of the Aesthetic Movement. His reputation in England reached a climax when the 'Briar Rose' paintings were exhibited in 1890. Burne-Jones often worked on his pictures over many years and his career is remarkably consistent. Nearly all his paintings take their subject from medieval legend or classical myth, although he also treated Biblical themes and fanciful subjects of his own. He died at Fulham on 16 June 1898.

Reference: The Pre-Raphaelites, Exh. Cat. (The Tate Gallery, London 1984) 28-29