Edward Burne-Jones

Painter of melancholy, dreamlike scenes from medieval legend and classical myth, a leading figure in the Aesthetic Movement. While a student at Oxford he admired paintings by the Pre-Raphaelites, and after settling in London he met Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who gave him some informal lessons in painting-apparently the only training he received. In 1861 he helped his friend William Morris to establish his celebrated decorative arts firm, to which he was to contribute hundreds of designs for stained glass, tapestries, embroidered hangings, tiles, and other objects of applied art. Most of his early works, which show the strong influence of Rossetti, were in watercolor and bodycolor. From about 1870, however, he worked increasingly in oil, developing a mature style much indebted to his study of Italian Renaissance art. He achieved sudden fame when eight of his paintings were shown at the first Grosvenor Gallery exhibition in 1877.

[Great British Paintings Label Text]