Edward Burne-Jones

This biography traces Edward Burne-Jones's life from his beginnings as a solitary child in Birmingham, suggests a deeper understanding of his work. This edition has been brought back into print to coincide with the centenary of Burne-Jones's death.

This biography traces Edward Burne-Jones's life and suggests a deeper understanding of his work. It tells of his beginnings as a solitary child in Birmingham, the only son of a not too successful picture-framer, and his formative years at Oxford where, with William Morris, he felt the powerful influence of Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites. In 1860 he married the 19-year-old Georgiana Macdonald. This book describes their life together, Georgie's constant loyalty throughout his periods of illness and his infatuations with striking young women, and his love for his children: he was a slave to his beautiful daughter, Margaret, and bewildered by his difficult son, Phil. But Burne-Jones was, in fact, a sympathetic man, and a great wit. This edition has been brought back into print to coincide with the centenary of Burne-Jones's death.

1833-53 a childhood without beauty
1853-5 Oxford - loss and gain
1855-6 Morris and Jones - the quest for a vocation
1856 an apprenticeship to Rossetti
1856-60 the long engagement
1860-2 expansion - the firm, Ruskin and Italy
1863-5 "Green Summer" - a season of happiness
1865-6 friends and enemies
1866-7 a threat to the earthly paradise
1867-70 "Phyllis and Demophoon" - the dangers of enchantment
1870-6 the desolate years
1876-8 a return to the world - the Grosvenor Gallery
1878-84 "King Cophetua" - the studio in the 80s
1884-90 the Royal Academy - "to think, Jones, of your coming to this!"
1890-2 "Briar Rose" - Burne-Jones in the 90s
1892-4 "The best in me has been love"
1894-6 the Kelmscott Chaucer and the parting of friends
1896-8 Rottindean and "Avalon".