Author Description

This classic work from 1904 is a unique and comprehensive source: a fascinating account of the life and times of the painter and decorative artist Edward Burne-Jones, written by his wife Georgiana shortly after the artist's death. The second volume of memoirs continues the story from 1868 until Burne-Jones's death in 1898, describing the conception and completion of some of his most well-known paintings (the Briar Rose series, The Golden Stairs) and touching upon outside events in the art world, such as the Ruskin-Whistler libel case and the formation of the Grosvenor and New Galleries. Burne-Jones's ambivalent attitude towards the art establishment is conveyed in his hesitant acceptance of his appointment as Associate of the Royal Academy in 1885, and his subsequent resignation from the Royal Academy in 1893. Georgiana Burne-Jones lets her characters speak for themselves whenever possible, quoting extensively from letters, conversations and reminiscences, and this is particularly so in this second volume, which is often little more than a skilfully constructed patchwork of quotations. Burne-Jones was a formidable scholar and antiquarian and took a lively interest in current events; the memoirs include his reflections on a wide range of topics, such as art and artists, contemporary politics, education, the future of science and the art of living. The Memorials are therefore much more than just a biography. In recording Burne-Jones's many friendships with artists and such literary figures as Ruskin, Browning, Swinburne and George Eliot, the author sheds important light on the whole cultural climate in which Burne-Jones was working. This new edition of the Memorials, which have been long out-of-print, will be of great interest to scholars and non-scholars alike, who will find in the work a lively portrait of a fascinating man. As John Christian writes in his introduction to the new edition, this is 'a portrait which has few real parallels in the histor