Carmon

Edward Coley Burne-Jones was born in 1833 in Birmingham. His father was a small business owner, specializing as a framer, and his mother died a few weeks after Edward was born. He lived in the industrial town of Birmingham until he was twenty. He attended King Edward VI school from the age of eleven and achieved high academic results in mathematics and drawing. He went to Exetor College in Oxford in 1853, and met William Morris, who became a lifelong friend and they also shared a home from 1856. They both had thought about church work, but Edward decided to becomes a painter and William became an architect. He also changed his name from Jones to Burne-Jones about this time.

Edward took a few lessons from Rosetti, but essentially he is a self-taught artist. He learned from Rosetti the need to keep art pure and was a supporter of the Pre-Raphaelite styles and forms. He was also prominent in promoting medieval art. His early works were pen and ink drawings and watercolors of a romantic nature. He traveled to Italy on a number of occasions during his life to fine tune his artistic talent. He married Georgina MacDonald, a sister of a friend. He designed stained glass windows and later took on a job with Morris in 1875 at his stained glass factory.

He was also a friend of John Ruskin the art critic and they traveled together to Italy where Edward began to develop a unique style. He preferred to draw a live model, and narrowly escaped a scandal of an affair with one of his models.

Edward concentrated on oil paintings from 1877 and almost immediately won wide acclaim. Some of his oil paintings were large compared to other works. His works were the major draw-card at a number of shows in the coming years, including the Exposition Universelle in 1878. He was also a witness for John Ruskin at a libel case with James McNeill Whistler.

He never limited himself to canvas and designed decorations for jewelry, tiles, costumes and tapestries. His finest work in this area is regarded as the Holy Grail series that are displayed at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

Throughout his life, Edward used literature as his inspiration for his paintings, and this is most evident in The Briar Rose (1873) and Perseus (1882)

He became a Baron in 1894, and died from heart failure as Sir Edward Burne-Jones in Fulham in 1998.

The possibility of obtaining any of the great artworks by this artist is quite small, although from time to time they become available, but usually one needs to bid against international galleries for the artwork. Prints and cards have been produced by many suppliers of these works and other masters. For more information on the old masters and painters of the 18th century, go to http://uniquevintageprints.googlepages.com