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The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination
From the prize winning author of William Morris comes a new biography of Edward Burne-Jones, the greatest British artist of the second half of the nineteenth century.
The angels on our Christmas cards, the stained glass in our churches, the great paintings in our galleries - Edward Burne-Jones's work is all around us. The most admired British artist of his generation, he was a leading figure with Oscar Wilde in the aesthetic movement of the 1880s, inventing what became a widespread 'Burne-Jones look'. The bridge between Victorian and modern art, he influenced not just his immediate circle but artists such as Klimt and Picasso. In this gripping book Fiona MacCarthy explores and re-evaluates his art and life - his battle against vicious public hostility, the romantic susceptibility to female beauty that would inspire his art and ruin his marriage, his ill health and depressive sensibility, the devastating rift with his great friend and collaborator William Morris as their views on art and politics diverged.
With new research and fresh historical perspective, The Last Pre-Raphaelite tells the extraordinary, dramatic story of Burne-Jones as an artist, a key figure in Victorian society and a peculiarly captivating man.
The angels on our Christmas cards, the stained glass in our churches, the great paintings in our galleries - Edward Burne-Jones's work is all around us. The most admired British artist of his generation, he was a leading figure with Oscar Wilde in the aesthetic movement of the 1880s, inventing what became a widespread 'Burne-Jones look'. The bridge between Victorian and modern art, he influenced not just his immediate circle but artists such as Klimt and Picasso. In this gripping book Fiona MacCarthy explores and re-evaluates his art and life - his battle against vicious public hostility, the romantic susceptibility to female beauty that would inspire his art and ruin his marriage, his ill health and depressive sensibility, the devastating rift with his great friend and collaborator William Morris as their views on art and politics diverged.
With new research and fresh historical perspective, The Last Pre-Raphaelite tells the extraordinary, dramatic story of Burne-Jones as an artist, a key figure in Victorian society and a peculiarly captivating man.
656 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2011
27 people are currently reading
1070 people want to read
About the author
Fiona MacCarthy
29 books39 followersFiona MacCarthy was an English biographer and cultural historian best known for her studies of 19th- and 20th-Century art and design.
MacCarthy began her career on The Guardian in 1963 initially as an assistant to the women's editor Mary Stott. She was appointed as the newspaper's design correspondent, working as a features writer and columnist, sometimes using a pseudonymous byline to avoid two articles appearing in the same issue. She left The Guardian in 1969, briefly becoming women's editor of the London Evening Standard before settling in Sheffield.
She later became a biographer and critic. She came to wider attention as a biographer with a once-controversial study of the Roman Catholic craftsman and sculptor Eric Gill, first published in 1989. MacCarthy is known for her arts essays and reviews, which appeared in The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement and The New York Review of Books. She contributed to TV and radio arts programmes.
MacCarthy began her career on The Guardian in 1963 initially as an assistant to the women's editor Mary Stott. She was appointed as the newspaper's design correspondent, working as a features writer and columnist, sometimes using a pseudonymous byline to avoid two articles appearing in the same issue. She left The Guardian in 1969, briefly becoming women's editor of the London Evening Standard before settling in Sheffield.
She later became a biographer and critic. She came to wider attention as a biographer with a once-controversial study of the Roman Catholic craftsman and sculptor Eric Gill, first published in 1989. MacCarthy is known for her arts essays and reviews, which appeared in The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement and The New York Review of Books. She contributed to TV and radio arts programmes.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
April 14, 2016
I remember it all – and the processions –and the trombones – and the ancient singing – more beautiful than anything I had ever heard and I think I have never heard the like since. And the great organ that made the air tremble – and the greater organ that pealed out suddenly, and I thought the Day of Judgement had come – and the roof, and the long lights that are the most graceful things man has ever made. What a day it was, and how alive I was, and how young – and a blue dragonfly stood still in the air so long that I could have painted him.
That's Edward Burne-Jones writing about his visit to Beauvais Cathedral in France in 1855. In those days if you wanted to see French or Italian art you had to go there. No youtube documentaries, not even any colour reproductions, nothing.
Burne-Jones, like a lot of young Victorians, lost his Christian faith quite young, and invented a substitute faith, which in his case was an extremely sensuous and sentimental re-imagining of the legend of King Arthur, along with a generalised adoration of anything medieval and gothick. His art was sumptuous and morbid, chilly and erotic, almost always erotic. Quite a lot of it looks it was born to be on a box of 15th century chocolates. He was a very sweet-natured man with a genius for fusing colour and prettiness with gorgeously atmospheric morbidly mythological medieval maundering involving swoony moony maidens and shiny metallic knights, middlesexy angels and lashings of yellowy-greenery. He would summon up visions of an Arthurian England which never existed but he would get the briars on the briar rose botanically perfect.
Burne-Jones came from a working class family and was so remarkably upwardly mobile that in his 60s he nobbed around with prime ministers and was knighted and was buried in West bloody minster Abbey. He did this through being recognised by several people who got him work and patrons and for being a total whizz at designing stained glass windows which aren't much called for these days but were the business in the High Victorian period. A good stained glass window was like cocaine for them. Or maybe acid. Hey, I dunno, I'm just theorizing.
The important people for the young EBJ were William Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Ruskin. This biography is like a river starting from a twinkly spring in the unnoticed hills and turning into a whitewater stream and eventually into a languorous mighty river on which many famous names can be seen skiffing about. By the end we have spent time with George Eliot, Swinburne, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, Beardsley and many other movers and shakers. EBJ became so famous he was satirised by Gilbert and Sullivan.
He married into a very remarkable family – they were likewise of modest means, the father was a minister, but look at this – one daughter married EBJ who became the most famous late-Victorian painter and died rich; another daughter married a guy and had a son who became prime minister (Stanley Baldwin) and a third sister married a guy and had a son whose name was Rudyard Kipling of whom you may have heard. That's not bad for one family.
EBJ was engaged to Georgiana MacDonald when she was 15 and he was 20. Is that creepy? The engagement lasted four years, his prospects were too dubious to marry before that. But Fiona MacCarthy does not think he joined his fellow student roister-doisters in their carnal explorations of the Victorian sexual underworld. He remained throughout his life a man who loved to be besotted with a whole parade of women and young girls, but intensely enjoyed the besottedness and the intense tete-a-tetes, and that was all. His wife had to put up with that. Many of his entanglements lasted years. She just had to look the other way when he swanned about in Europe with the wife of this guy or the widow of that guy.
However - what about the very young girls. They were called "pets" and this was a thing a few of EBJ's friends also did – they would have intense crushes on their friends' or acquaintances' female children. They would take them out for trips, and have unchaperoned visits, they would paint them, they would write a lot of letters to them, these girls of, say, 6 to 15. And that would be okay. No problem. Fiona says :
What are we to make of Burne-Jones' adoration of little girls? The first thing to be said is that conventions in adult behaviour towards children were very different in the middle of the 19th century from the wariness to which we have been accustomed today. The worship of the young girl, the innocent, had become almost a given in Pre-Raphaelite circles, the depiction of pre-pubescent beauty made more poignant by the sense that this was by its nature a temporary stage.
Extract from the diary of Constance Hilliard, aged 14 – dated 12 July 1865
Drive into London to see Mr Jones. A nice petting and grave talks. Sweet run in the garden, tea and talks, and another nice petting before I went to bed.
Fiona says :
What did she mean by "petting"? Caresses? Sweet-talking? A degree of innuendo? …These things are mysterious to later generations.
I think these relationships were of the same type that Lewis Carroll had with Alice and the rest. They have paedophilic aspects to them, undoubtedly, but we have to struggle against our hair-trigger cynicism and accept that yes, the past is a different country and yes, they do things differently there. When two of the girls he had crushes on got engaged, he was miserable, and painted them into a picture where they are to be seen "posed together at the base of a frozen fountain". (!)
People have loved and sneered at and disregarded and rediscovered and venerated and loathed Burne-Jones' stuff. In 1898 one painting was bought for £5775 (= approx £2 million). The same painting fetched £21 in auction in 1941 (= £2500). When the impressionists came along he didn't like them and they didn't like him. By the end of his life he knew he'd been a fad and that he was passe. Although this book doesn't have too many moments of pure comedy in it, one came unexpectedly for me when Fiona was discussing EBJ's recent rehabilitation – she mentions two prominent collectors – Andrew Lloyd Webber and – can it be – Jimmy Page. Kerrang! I was not expecting the groupie-munching axeman to be making an entrance into these pages. For a moment I was dazed and confused.
For anyone who loves the Pre-Raffs or Victorian painters or Victorian people in general or just a long leisurely biography this is a bit of a treat.
That's Edward Burne-Jones writing about his visit to Beauvais Cathedral in France in 1855. In those days if you wanted to see French or Italian art you had to go there. No youtube documentaries, not even any colour reproductions, nothing.
Burne-Jones, like a lot of young Victorians, lost his Christian faith quite young, and invented a substitute faith, which in his case was an extremely sensuous and sentimental re-imagining of the legend of King Arthur, along with a generalised adoration of anything medieval and gothick. His art was sumptuous and morbid, chilly and erotic, almost always erotic. Quite a lot of it looks it was born to be on a box of 15th century chocolates. He was a very sweet-natured man with a genius for fusing colour and prettiness with gorgeously atmospheric morbidly mythological medieval maundering involving swoony moony maidens and shiny metallic knights, middlesexy angels and lashings of yellowy-greenery. He would summon up visions of an Arthurian England which never existed but he would get the briars on the briar rose botanically perfect.
Burne-Jones came from a working class family and was so remarkably upwardly mobile that in his 60s he nobbed around with prime ministers and was knighted and was buried in West bloody minster Abbey. He did this through being recognised by several people who got him work and patrons and for being a total whizz at designing stained glass windows which aren't much called for these days but were the business in the High Victorian period. A good stained glass window was like cocaine for them. Or maybe acid. Hey, I dunno, I'm just theorizing.
The important people for the young EBJ were William Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Ruskin. This biography is like a river starting from a twinkly spring in the unnoticed hills and turning into a whitewater stream and eventually into a languorous mighty river on which many famous names can be seen skiffing about. By the end we have spent time with George Eliot, Swinburne, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, Beardsley and many other movers and shakers. EBJ became so famous he was satirised by Gilbert and Sullivan.
He married into a very remarkable family – they were likewise of modest means, the father was a minister, but look at this – one daughter married EBJ who became the most famous late-Victorian painter and died rich; another daughter married a guy and had a son who became prime minister (Stanley Baldwin) and a third sister married a guy and had a son whose name was Rudyard Kipling of whom you may have heard. That's not bad for one family.
EBJ was engaged to Georgiana MacDonald when she was 15 and he was 20. Is that creepy? The engagement lasted four years, his prospects were too dubious to marry before that. But Fiona MacCarthy does not think he joined his fellow student roister-doisters in their carnal explorations of the Victorian sexual underworld. He remained throughout his life a man who loved to be besotted with a whole parade of women and young girls, but intensely enjoyed the besottedness and the intense tete-a-tetes, and that was all. His wife had to put up with that. Many of his entanglements lasted years. She just had to look the other way when he swanned about in Europe with the wife of this guy or the widow of that guy.
However - what about the very young girls. They were called "pets" and this was a thing a few of EBJ's friends also did – they would have intense crushes on their friends' or acquaintances' female children. They would take them out for trips, and have unchaperoned visits, they would paint them, they would write a lot of letters to them, these girls of, say, 6 to 15. And that would be okay. No problem. Fiona says :
What are we to make of Burne-Jones' adoration of little girls? The first thing to be said is that conventions in adult behaviour towards children were very different in the middle of the 19th century from the wariness to which we have been accustomed today. The worship of the young girl, the innocent, had become almost a given in Pre-Raphaelite circles, the depiction of pre-pubescent beauty made more poignant by the sense that this was by its nature a temporary stage.
Extract from the diary of Constance Hilliard, aged 14 – dated 12 July 1865
Drive into London to see Mr Jones. A nice petting and grave talks. Sweet run in the garden, tea and talks, and another nice petting before I went to bed.
Fiona says :
What did she mean by "petting"? Caresses? Sweet-talking? A degree of innuendo? …These things are mysterious to later generations.
I think these relationships were of the same type that Lewis Carroll had with Alice and the rest. They have paedophilic aspects to them, undoubtedly, but we have to struggle against our hair-trigger cynicism and accept that yes, the past is a different country and yes, they do things differently there. When two of the girls he had crushes on got engaged, he was miserable, and painted them into a picture where they are to be seen "posed together at the base of a frozen fountain". (!)
People have loved and sneered at and disregarded and rediscovered and venerated and loathed Burne-Jones' stuff. In 1898 one painting was bought for £5775 (= approx £2 million). The same painting fetched £21 in auction in 1941 (= £2500). When the impressionists came along he didn't like them and they didn't like him. By the end of his life he knew he'd been a fad and that he was passe. Although this book doesn't have too many moments of pure comedy in it, one came unexpectedly for me when Fiona was discussing EBJ's recent rehabilitation – she mentions two prominent collectors – Andrew Lloyd Webber and – can it be – Jimmy Page. Kerrang! I was not expecting the groupie-munching axeman to be making an entrance into these pages. For a moment I was dazed and confused.
For anyone who loves the Pre-Raffs or Victorian painters or Victorian people in general or just a long leisurely biography this is a bit of a treat.
January 16, 2012
Done! And after three months of slow reading I gobbled up the last 200 pages in a single day. As always when I read biographies I felt that terrible swelling of emotion as Burne-Jones' life wound down to the inevitable end. Fiona MacCarthy's control of her subject in the last few chapters was very good; the way she tied off each loose end. I found myself tearing up at the death of William Morris, and was very moved by the description of Burne-Jones own quiet funeral at Rottingdean not many years later. An exemplary biography in every way. I only wish there could have been more images and illustrations.
September 17, 2012
This is what the French would call une brique. A monster doorstop of a book that will plunge you, rather enjoyably, into the lives of eminent late Victorians. Save Ruskin and Rossetti, I knew little of the Pre-Raphaelites (and Burne-Jones in particular) before reading this book, but found it hard to put down; the story is spun clearly and movingly. The friendships and spats glimmer on the surface: Morris's advances into socialism, the scandalous affair withe Greek muse/harpie Maria Zambaco, Burne-Jones fostering the youthful (and already elegantly wasted) Aubrey Beardsley's talent only to have his protege caricature the Master's style. Treachery indeed!
Elegantly, one of the final chapters delves into biographical criticism, taking into consideration wife Georgiana's two-volume biography; a near best-seller in its day. Consult MacCarthy's formidable scholarly apparatus before reading and find yourself a couple Burne-Jones and Morris monographs--this book is rather short on illustrations, and Ned's paintings, stained glass, tapestries, and illustrations need to be SEEN. If you need to get closer, don't despair, there's a Kelmscott Chaucer available on abebooks for $75,000 (free shipping!). Interestingly enough, one of the most important collections of Burne-Jones is in the hands of 'Lord' Andrew Lloyd Webber; one wishes that he had drawn a deeper drought from these paintings than is evident.
Elegantly, one of the final chapters delves into biographical criticism, taking into consideration wife Georgiana's two-volume biography; a near best-seller in its day. Consult MacCarthy's formidable scholarly apparatus before reading and find yourself a couple Burne-Jones and Morris monographs--this book is rather short on illustrations, and Ned's paintings, stained glass, tapestries, and illustrations need to be SEEN. If you need to get closer, don't despair, there's a Kelmscott Chaucer available on abebooks for $75,000 (free shipping!). Interestingly enough, one of the most important collections of Burne-Jones is in the hands of 'Lord' Andrew Lloyd Webber; one wishes that he had drawn a deeper drought from these paintings than is evident.
April 29, 2013
MacCarthy writes so beautifully, she could create interest and meaning in her subject's toenail clippings. Her account is often moving on the friendship with Morris and Jones's passion for a beauty that defies the ugly new world of industrialization. Her discussion of Jones' less admirable traits is straightforward without being judgmental or overly apoloetic. I especially appreciated her sympathetic reading of of Georgiana Jones. Only the last chapter was a bit scattered and anticlimatic.
February 11, 2019
Quite a doorstop of a book, but I seemed to get through it pretty quickly all things considered. That was largely down to excellent writing and the chronological/location arrangement of material; I always knew where I was and when I was, so there was no flipping back to reorient myself.
I had Edward Burne-Jones to hand so that I could examine color plates of the pictures--either such a book or ready internet access really help when you're looking at the life of an artist, even though MacCarthy included copious plates and inline illustrations to point up the sheer visuality of Burne-Jones's imagination. He was, it appears, an incredibly prolific letter-writer as well as an extraordinary workhorse at the easel, and illustrated many of his letters with cartoons poking gentle fun at other people and himself.
My overall impression was of a kind, witty man who knew how to laugh and make other people laugh, didn't take himself seriously but was ultimately very serious about his art. He was flawed, of course; his long-suffering wife had to put up with at least one real affair and several affairs of the heart and he definitely hid some part of his life from her, not least the hundreds of letters he would send to the object(s) of his affections (more than one at once).
I closed this biography wishing there had been more. I could seriously have coped with another two or three hundred pages of such interesting subject-matter and such lucid and readable prose. Recommended.
I had Edward Burne-Jones to hand so that I could examine color plates of the pictures--either such a book or ready internet access really help when you're looking at the life of an artist, even though MacCarthy included copious plates and inline illustrations to point up the sheer visuality of Burne-Jones's imagination. He was, it appears, an incredibly prolific letter-writer as well as an extraordinary workhorse at the easel, and illustrated many of his letters with cartoons poking gentle fun at other people and himself.
My overall impression was of a kind, witty man who knew how to laugh and make other people laugh, didn't take himself seriously but was ultimately very serious about his art. He was flawed, of course; his long-suffering wife had to put up with at least one real affair and several affairs of the heart and he definitely hid some part of his life from her, not least the hundreds of letters he would send to the object(s) of his affections (more than one at once).
I closed this biography wishing there had been more. I could seriously have coped with another two or three hundred pages of such interesting subject-matter and such lucid and readable prose. Recommended.
October 4, 2020
A great, sweeping biography that reads like a Victorian novel. Despite being a lifelong fan of pre-Raphaelite art, I knew little of Burne-Jones’s struggle from Birmingham obscurity to the peak of his profession. In a way, his long life and absence of dramatic personal scandals (other than intense emotional extramarital flirtations)make him the ideal prism or thread to study this movement. Ruskin, George Eliot, Henry James, Aubrey Beardsley, and, of course, Oscar Wilde, all make appearances, along with the rest of his pre-Raphaelite brethren.
March 3, 2019
This is a big biography, but that shouldn’t put anyone off. It is almost as much a book about the Victorian age as a whole, the conflict between materialism and the life of the imagination. Perhaps MacCarthy is too sympathetic, but that would be my only quibble. The final chapter, exploring the reputation of artist after his death, is particularly interesting.
July 6, 2014
I didn't know about Edward Burne-Jones until I started looking into the Pre-Raphaelites; like many, I was lured in by William Morris's enormously broad influence and the Rossetti family name. Now, having read MacCarthy's precisely researched and written biography of Burne-Jones, I have decided I like B-J the best. It matters that, unlike almost all of his colleagues, he was born into Dickensian poverty in ugly Birmingham, England. His collaborative friendships with Morris, Millais, Rossetti, and the other P-Rs are traced with clarity here, so that MacCarthy shows how a movement really develops, organically, between individuals with a similar compulsion, if also different styles. They visit each other on Sundays, eat, drink, talk, and paint for hours. To my mind, the Pre-Raphaelites illustrate what Lewis-Hyde wonders about in his great essay, The Gift: How can artistic gifts find value and worth (different things) in the marketplace? It is clear that B-J walked the tightrope very well. He provided for his family's well-being, both through his paintings and his amazing stained-glass work (which MacCarthy brings particularly devoted attention to) for Morris & Co., but he never sold out his vision, as Millais did in the end, which leads to a sad scene where B-J sees his fellow old P-R on the street, hollowed and on the look-out for his lost soul. B-J found his niche by being himself, a brilliant man with peculiar paintings who refused to hurry over cornerwork and let commissioned canvases sit for years in his studio--not for lack of a work ethic, which he had to the death, but because so many grand ideas in so many different forms were all cooking at one time. His most famous works all receive their due, as also do the charming, self-deprecating, quick-sketch cartoons he sent to bright little girls. B-J cares about the young--one could say, anachronistically, too much in the case of the girls--and he mentors many young men who end up important. Rudyard Kipling, Henry James, and a future British prime minister, Baldwin, grew up hanging out and absorbing what I imagine was a glorious feeling for culture at the B-J house, the Grange, which is described in the book with real life. B-J's wife, Georgiana, is never neglected in this biography, to MacCarthy's great credit. Their marriage is fascinating and sad--she was Morris's muse at the same time she had basically turned into a domestic business partner for B-J. MacCarthy is sympathetic to her without choosing sides; the author recognizes that B-J's utter and unending love of women was his downfall (though it seems, never consummated with any of the art-minded women, who all look like younger, maybe wilder versions of Georgie). She knows, too, when he wasn't writing love letters, he wasn't able to make progress on his best work, either. My only regret, and the reason why this excellent title only receives four stars, is that to a certain degree MacCarthy sticks to the surface of B-J's life. What did he find in Arthurian romance that transfixed his soul from boyhood to, literally, his last day, beyond just "chivalry" and a boyhood fondness for Malory and Walter Scott? She skims over his working methods, as well, except to quote the master admitting, wonderfully, that he had to figure out how to paint every time a new canvas was begun.
August 23, 2013
McCarthy is a an excellent biographer of figures of this period. I loved her biog of Morris and while I find Morris the much more likeable and interesting man her biog of Burne-Jones makes for excellent reading, capturing not just her subject but the cultural milieu in which he created such wonderful art. An excellent read!
March 29, 2018
I was never a great fan of Burne-Jones but I do enjoy reading about artists, and the time when artists were so encumbered with things like , dunno, skill, talent, a sense of mission, a passion for their craft even. This lengthy brick of a biography of 530 plus pages has changed the way I see Burne-Jones to a great degree. I still find EBJ sentimental, rarefied and somewhat dry. His portraits, of which he did not that many, have a samey-samey feel...the spooked separated eyes, the long nose and even longer neck.. , frankly, I can't tell one Margaret from a Frances from a French Baroness. That said, I loved learning about the wonderful stained glass windows, the Briar Rose room in Buscot Manor and other marvels like the tomb of F. Leyland in Brompton Cemetery, for example. You see, after reading this book I think the wonder of BurneJones lies beyond how great his paintings were , it lies beyond the man himself. Fiona McCarthy does a great job at embedding EBJ in his environment and following the propeller forces with which this hard-working artists availed himself to triumph.
EBJ's life reads like the who's who of Victorian cultural elite. It didn't start that way. He was born in dignified poverty in Birmingham before this town reaped the benefits (and ravages) of the industrial revolution. There is little question that an encounter at Oxford with a son of privilege with equally aesthetic interests , William Morris, would change the course of his life for the best. Burne Jones might have started out to become a curate but after much excited conversation with Mr. Morris in France, they set on a course to become aesthetic revolutionaries.
Despite his intense flirtations with Socialism later in life, Morris had a keen sense of business and recognized in EBJ a conspirator to elevate the taste of Victorian arts and a great talent for design which came in handy when stained glass windows orders started to pile up at Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., probably EBJ's first great success in the arts. This is also the time of the pre-raphaelite Brotherhood. Burne Jones met Dante Gabriel Rosetti the same way Victorian people seemed to meet everyone, either in the street or paying a visit. Soon, EBJ was part of many aesthete picnics and teas and along with Rosetti came a long list of other luminaries.
Burne Jones had many devoted champions among his clients. Almost none of them was content with just one picture. In many ways, what EBJ and Morris offered was a combo, a way to enhance not only the walls but whole rooms with wallpaper, furniture and tapestries.
As I mentioned before, the book is adept at demonstrating to what extent EBJ did not create his success on his very hard work alone. If Morris was the ox pulling the initial enterprise, his wife Georgiana was essential to his success in wider realms. It is quite amazing that his wife's family achieved great notoriety by itself and made old Edward the uncle of Ruyard Kipling and the PM Stanley Baldwin. That was his wife's family , not his! Georgie had to put up with no small amount of tomfoolery from his talented hubby, with all his passionate and long-lasting infatuations -at least until the damsels in questions got married to one lord or another- and all his excursions and total ignorance of domestic affairs. She ran a tight ship and sacrificed her own artistic ambitions. I enjoy that the biographer, a woman herself, puts Georgie in the ranks of essential aids to the genius of Sir EBJ, not just in the background making tea and shooing away unwanted devotees
What this book does quite well is gently tease out the inspiration behind Burne Jones's work. First and foremost EBJ was an Arthurian fanatic. He loved to imagine a non-existent past as an antidote to the ugly materialistic present. He sought out inspiration not only in literature and the initial- but smothering- guidance of John Ruskin but in several forays to Italy, seeking out the art of Giotto, Gozzoli, the Ravena mosaics and many other places not yet swarming with tourists. And then there was the odd and somewhat creepy fascination with his 'pets', a series of infatuations with young girls in the vein of Lewis Carroll and the Lidall sisters. By the way this ambiguous episodes of adult men corresponding with younger women and "petting" them in a quasi-platonic and quasi-erotic dalliances seemed to have been somewhat acceptable in Victorian times. A strange world indeed when one considers how homosexuals like Oscar Wilde or Simeon Salomon were treated by society at large. In any case, these obsessions gave fuel to many languid and delicate works of art. This inert, dismayed and downright comatose quality in EBJ's art had great appeal for aesthetes but didn't escape ridicule even in his own time.
EBJ's life reads like the who's who of Victorian cultural elite. It didn't start that way. He was born in dignified poverty in Birmingham before this town reaped the benefits (and ravages) of the industrial revolution. There is little question that an encounter at Oxford with a son of privilege with equally aesthetic interests , William Morris, would change the course of his life for the best. Burne Jones might have started out to become a curate but after much excited conversation with Mr. Morris in France, they set on a course to become aesthetic revolutionaries.
Despite his intense flirtations with Socialism later in life, Morris had a keen sense of business and recognized in EBJ a conspirator to elevate the taste of Victorian arts and a great talent for design which came in handy when stained glass windows orders started to pile up at Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., probably EBJ's first great success in the arts. This is also the time of the pre-raphaelite Brotherhood. Burne Jones met Dante Gabriel Rosetti the same way Victorian people seemed to meet everyone, either in the street or paying a visit. Soon, EBJ was part of many aesthete picnics and teas and along with Rosetti came a long list of other luminaries.
Burne Jones had many devoted champions among his clients. Almost none of them was content with just one picture. In many ways, what EBJ and Morris offered was a combo, a way to enhance not only the walls but whole rooms with wallpaper, furniture and tapestries.
As I mentioned before, the book is adept at demonstrating to what extent EBJ did not create his success on his very hard work alone. If Morris was the ox pulling the initial enterprise, his wife Georgiana was essential to his success in wider realms. It is quite amazing that his wife's family achieved great notoriety by itself and made old Edward the uncle of Ruyard Kipling and the PM Stanley Baldwin. That was his wife's family , not his! Georgie had to put up with no small amount of tomfoolery from his talented hubby, with all his passionate and long-lasting infatuations -at least until the damsels in questions got married to one lord or another- and all his excursions and total ignorance of domestic affairs. She ran a tight ship and sacrificed her own artistic ambitions. I enjoy that the biographer, a woman herself, puts Georgie in the ranks of essential aids to the genius of Sir EBJ, not just in the background making tea and shooing away unwanted devotees
What this book does quite well is gently tease out the inspiration behind Burne Jones's work. First and foremost EBJ was an Arthurian fanatic. He loved to imagine a non-existent past as an antidote to the ugly materialistic present. He sought out inspiration not only in literature and the initial- but smothering- guidance of John Ruskin but in several forays to Italy, seeking out the art of Giotto, Gozzoli, the Ravena mosaics and many other places not yet swarming with tourists. And then there was the odd and somewhat creepy fascination with his 'pets', a series of infatuations with young girls in the vein of Lewis Carroll and the Lidall sisters. By the way this ambiguous episodes of adult men corresponding with younger women and "petting" them in a quasi-platonic and quasi-erotic dalliances seemed to have been somewhat acceptable in Victorian times. A strange world indeed when one considers how homosexuals like Oscar Wilde or Simeon Salomon were treated by society at large. In any case, these obsessions gave fuel to many languid and delicate works of art. This inert, dismayed and downright comatose quality in EBJ's art had great appeal for aesthetes but didn't escape ridicule even in his own time.
December 20, 2018
I liked this book. Once again, as with any biography, you find out the person being discussed was hardly a saint, despite what their art might show (that goes for everyone, though).
I liked that the author took time to explain certain things that now seem strange or wrong to us, like the closeness between Burne-Jones & young girls. It still feels off, but having it placed in context helped. And of course, be ready for more names than you can possibly keep track of. The author provides a Burne-Jones family tree at the beginning of the book, but there's so many more people who were involved in the artist's life, & unless they really stand out, like Ruskin & Morris, you can get lost in trying to remember who's who. It did surprise me, though, to find out just how many people whose names are now famous were connected to Burne-Jones. For instance, i didn't know that he was Rudyard Kipling's uncle.
MacCarthy also sometimes switches between a person's given name & a nickname: she often refers to Burne-Jones as such, but sometimes refers to him as "Ned". I'm not sure of the effect of this. Georgie being called that makes sense, since it seems like the people in her life called her that more than her given name, but the first time "Ned" appeared in the text, it seemed somewhat strange to me, almost too informal.
As an American with not a lot of knowledge of British history & some terms, there's a few things that flew over my head. (I bought the book from a now sadly defunct bargain bookstore for less than $10, far less than the £18 original price printed on the back.) For example, a moment when Burne-Jones tells someone the world would be better if X had happened instead of Y (like, i think, Cromwell's head being cut off) would have a better effect on someone who knows the history well & can conjecture the consequences of a change of certain events. It doesn't hugely impact one's reading of the story, it's just that i had moments of pausing & wondering what certain words, terms, & statements meant.
I don't know if MacCarthy had power over this, but i wish that the color images had been in chronological order. It would have made it much easier to find images to reference when they were brought up in the text. I did like the photographs of Burne-Jones, his family, friends, & even acquaintances. It helped to put unfiltered faces to the names, despite the inevitable stiffness of Victorian photos.
Sometimes i thought the author should have used a comma, or "and" when listing things, but since this is an un-Americanized text, i'm not sure if that's just a language difference. The book was well-written, flowing easily. It may seem daunting to read because of its thickness, but it's not at all. (All i can think is how the research itself must've been daunting.) MacCarthy took the whole of Burne-Jones's life & was able to create a cohesive narrative, full of the people's own words, & not make it boring in any way. It doesn't drag on. This is an achievement, considering how easy it would be to just give readers the facts & move on. But MacCarthy tells the story of Burne-Jones's life, leaving the reader with a deeper appreciation for his work, & feeling almost as if we now know the man.
I liked that the author took time to explain certain things that now seem strange or wrong to us, like the closeness between Burne-Jones & young girls. It still feels off, but having it placed in context helped. And of course, be ready for more names than you can possibly keep track of. The author provides a Burne-Jones family tree at the beginning of the book, but there's so many more people who were involved in the artist's life, & unless they really stand out, like Ruskin & Morris, you can get lost in trying to remember who's who. It did surprise me, though, to find out just how many people whose names are now famous were connected to Burne-Jones. For instance, i didn't know that he was Rudyard Kipling's uncle.
MacCarthy also sometimes switches between a person's given name & a nickname: she often refers to Burne-Jones as such, but sometimes refers to him as "Ned". I'm not sure of the effect of this. Georgie being called that makes sense, since it seems like the people in her life called her that more than her given name, but the first time "Ned" appeared in the text, it seemed somewhat strange to me, almost too informal.
As an American with not a lot of knowledge of British history & some terms, there's a few things that flew over my head. (I bought the book from a now sadly defunct bargain bookstore for less than $10, far less than the £18 original price printed on the back.) For example, a moment when Burne-Jones tells someone the world would be better if X had happened instead of Y (like, i think, Cromwell's head being cut off) would have a better effect on someone who knows the history well & can conjecture the consequences of a change of certain events. It doesn't hugely impact one's reading of the story, it's just that i had moments of pausing & wondering what certain words, terms, & statements meant.
I don't know if MacCarthy had power over this, but i wish that the color images had been in chronological order. It would have made it much easier to find images to reference when they were brought up in the text. I did like the photographs of Burne-Jones, his family, friends, & even acquaintances. It helped to put unfiltered faces to the names, despite the inevitable stiffness of Victorian photos.
Sometimes i thought the author should have used a comma, or "and" when listing things, but since this is an un-Americanized text, i'm not sure if that's just a language difference. The book was well-written, flowing easily. It may seem daunting to read because of its thickness, but it's not at all. (All i can think is how the research itself must've been daunting.) MacCarthy took the whole of Burne-Jones's life & was able to create a cohesive narrative, full of the people's own words, & not make it boring in any way. It doesn't drag on. This is an achievement, considering how easy it would be to just give readers the facts & move on. But MacCarthy tells the story of Burne-Jones's life, leaving the reader with a deeper appreciation for his work, & feeling almost as if we now know the man.
October 1, 2024
Excellent biography that comfortably situates Burne-Jones in the center of a complex social network of aspirational taste-makers - the equivalent of our meme-era "influencers." I hadn't been fully aware of how close Burne-Jones was to William Morris, but MacCarthy clarifies and elucidates their enduring, symbiotic relationship.
What also becomes clear is how Burne-Jones was close to the center of the political world as well. Arthur Balfour was a key client and patron; Mary Gladstone Drew, the G.O.M.'s daughter and biographer, was a model and friend of Burne-Jones; and of course Rudyard Kipling and Stanley Baldwin were not only his wife's nephews, they were also frequent visitor's to Burne-Jones' home at Rottingdean, on the Sussex Coast.
What also becomes clear is how Burne-Jones was close to the center of the political world as well. Arthur Balfour was a key client and patron; Mary Gladstone Drew, the G.O.M.'s daughter and biographer, was a model and friend of Burne-Jones; and of course Rudyard Kipling and Stanley Baldwin were not only his wife's nephews, they were also frequent visitor's to Burne-Jones' home at Rottingdean, on the Sussex Coast.
July 27, 2025
Ik lees eigenlijk nooit biografieën omdat ik meestal de feitjes over iemand niet heel boeiend vindt. Ook deze biografie ontkomt niet geheel aan een opsommend karakter en hierdoor heb ik het boek in het begin vaak weggelegd. De interesse voor de kunststroming liet me doorzetten en als je langer optrekt met de hoofdpersonen wordt het steeds boeiender en krijgt het ook meer diepgang. De opzet van het boek is verder prettig en er zitten veel afbeeldingen in wat natuurlijk een pre is bij een boek over een kunstenaar. Idealiter zou er van ieder schilderij dat besproken wordt een afbeelding staan of een verwijzing waar je het in het boek kan vinden (en in 2025 misschien een digale appendix?). Voor liefhebbers van kunst uit de 19e eeuw een aanrader anders lekker in de boekhandel laten staan.
September 19, 2024
Excellent biography
Despite its length of 500 pages(with only a few pages of illustrations) I found this an easy and enjoyable read
I did need to stop and look at some of his work on line - thank heavens for the internet
I would have liked a little more on his family and social relationships as his wife Georgiana sounds fascinating, but I realise to do just to all his family and social connections the biography would have needed to be split over 2 books
This weekend I plan to visit Buscot House and have a closer look at the Briar Rose paintings and then onto Kelmscott House
I will also re-read Three Houses again( written by his granddaughter Angela Thirkell)
Despite its length of 500 pages(with only a few pages of illustrations) I found this an easy and enjoyable read
I did need to stop and look at some of his work on line - thank heavens for the internet
I would have liked a little more on his family and social relationships as his wife Georgiana sounds fascinating, but I realise to do just to all his family and social connections the biography would have needed to be split over 2 books
This weekend I plan to visit Buscot House and have a closer look at the Briar Rose paintings and then onto Kelmscott House
I will also re-read Three Houses again( written by his granddaughter Angela Thirkell)
April 29, 2020
After nearly 40 years after the last major monograph on Burne-Jones comes Fiona MacCarthy’s omnibus biography,Edward Burne-Jones The Last Pre- Raphaelite. After more than three decades as an admirer of EBJ I found this to be an illuminating and engrossing read. Every phase of Burne-Jones’s life is covered in minute detail and written about in a scholarly manner. Every chapter of this fabulous book offers new and revelatory information on the development of this extraordinary and important artist. I savored every word over morning coffee and enjoyed this so much that I plan on rereading it.
June 29, 2023
Extremely readable biography of a man I didn’t know too much about to start with even though I was pretty familiar with most of the other Pre Raphaelites.
This biography of Edward Burne Jones was full of detail and yet it never felt turgid. I had to keep stopping in order to google all the works of art mentioned so it took a long time to get through this chunk of a book but I learned a great deal and want to see more of his art in real life.
Highly recommend this book.
This biography of Edward Burne Jones was full of detail and yet it never felt turgid. I had to keep stopping in order to google all the works of art mentioned so it took a long time to get through this chunk of a book but I learned a great deal and want to see more of his art in real life.
Highly recommend this book.
July 12, 2024
A long book and a slow book, at the end of the day Ted was a painter in Victorian England not a soldier or explorer. He had a good time painting he got to meet the right people and painted their picture sometimes principly to earn the money to keep meeting and painting. Not a bad gig if you can get it. I do like his paintings and windows.
October 9, 2017
4/5 for my personal enjoyment, though 5/5 for the sheer scale and achievement of this enormous beast of a book: thoroughly researched and fluidly written.
March 20, 2021
I don't have words for how wonderful this was.
April 14, 2025
Really interesting insight into the life and works of the artist. Thoroughly enjoyed it
January 6, 2019
An astounding work, truly blissful and uneasing to read.
October 28, 2015
Excellent biography by Fiona McCarthy - detailed and absorbing. I am not a fan of Burne-Jones' painting, nor of pre-Raphaelite art in general - but I do find their stories, and these years of Victorian Britain, totally absorbing. He is a fascinating man - though a bit infuriating and unreliable (as befits an artist!!).
I think the hero of this book is really his wife, Georgina. As Burne-Jones pursued other women, she became closer to B-J's great friend, William Morris, adopting his Socialist ideals and campaigning for social justice and women's suffrage into late old age.
The lives of the pre-raphaelites are closely entangled, and it is is difficult to read just one of these biography - and I think this is better read after reading about Rossetti, Morris and Holman Hunt. But if you do, you will never tire of this Victorian soap-opera - Romance, Intrigue, Deception, Drug Addiction, Death - and Wombats - it's all there for you to enjoy.
I think the hero of this book is really his wife, Georgina. As Burne-Jones pursued other women, she became closer to B-J's great friend, William Morris, adopting his Socialist ideals and campaigning for social justice and women's suffrage into late old age.
The lives of the pre-raphaelites are closely entangled, and it is is difficult to read just one of these biography - and I think this is better read after reading about Rossetti, Morris and Holman Hunt. But if you do, you will never tire of this Victorian soap-opera - Romance, Intrigue, Deception, Drug Addiction, Death - and Wombats - it's all there for you to enjoy.
June 12, 2012
published in 2011. Spotted the title in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Finally got my hands on it today. I had planned to go to New York in 1998 for the Burne-Jones Centennial exhibit but broke my ankle and could not get there. As I whisked through this highly readable biography, I kept referring to art books to see the works referenced. I think I need to get my hands on the souvenir book from the Metropolitan Museum's exhibit. This was the most enjoyable and engrossing read I've had in art/history/biography in quite a while.
April 16, 2013
I sought this after seeing some of Burne-Jones work in the Museo de Ponce. It's very long and dense, although the story does trip along. I had it for nine weeks, as I kept getting books which were expiring. I didn't finish it, mostly because I couldn't renew it any longer, and I'd been picking at it so long I wanted to move on to other things. I learned lots about the art movements of the mid-nineteenth century. After a while, I will likely read MacCarthy's work on William Morris, whom I have long admired but know little about.
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February 25, 2016A wonderful passionate biography
The author has produced an enthralling account of the life of one of the towering figures of British art. Moreover she is able to illuminate the factors that make his works so powerful and evocative to many of us.
It is rare for a biography to carry its plethora of facts and dates so lightly whilst telling a complex and moving story with deceptive ease.
The author has produced an enthralling account of the life of one of the towering figures of British art. Moreover she is able to illuminate the factors that make his works so powerful and evocative to many of us.
It is rare for a biography to carry its plethora of facts and dates so lightly whilst telling a complex and moving story with deceptive ease.
May 27, 2016
Technically speaking it took me about 3 months to finish this lengthy book.The language is a little bit dry and sometimes it's simply listing events and dialogues,nevertheless the author drew me closer to this great artist and the Victorian intellectual society,indeed this book is not just about Sir Edward Burne-Jones but the imagination of an age.
January 16, 2013
I love Burne-Jones' work and found this to be a great insight into the late 19th century art world. The fact that the author actually talks about the ideas behind the paintings and other works, and the motivations for the artist (and not just his love affairs) made it more valuable to me.
September 12, 2014
Well-written, detailed biography of the famous Pre-Raphaelite painter. I found the introduction and conclusion to be very interesting, and to explain the artist's place in his world. However, in some places, I thought the book was a bit too detailed for the average reader.
October 11, 2015
One of my favourite artists. This has inspired me to seek out much more of hos work. He was so prolific, there is plenty around me to go and see. A very good biography, I already miss him and William Morris.
May 20, 2012
Fiona McCarthy writes like a dream. Her artist's biographies are insightful and informative. I gained a new appreciation of Burne-Jones though I thought I was knowledgeable about him.
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