Edward Burne-Jones Papers

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898), distinguished painter and designer, was one of the pre-eminent artists of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Burne-Jones began his career working on biblical illustrations and designs for stained glass, including windows for Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. His triptych The Adoration of the Kings and Shepherds, with the Annunciation for St. Paul's Church in Brighton, was an early work associated with Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., of which he was a founding member. His cycles of paintings and illustrations on mythological subjects have attracted widespread attention and acclaim.

Born in Birmingham, as a young man Burne-Jones attended drawing classes at the city's Government School of Design (he was later to be President of the Birmingham Society of Artists). While studying theology at Exeter College, Oxford, he met William Morris, with whom he began a lifelong friendship. Their shared interest in art and architecture lead them to the work of John Ruskin, and thereby to "Pre-Raphaelitism" and painters including John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Seeking out Rossetti at the Working Men's College in London, Burne-Jones received lessons from the artist and worked with him on the murals of the new Oxford Union building.

By the 1850s Burne-Jones had become a recognized artist and had developed connections with G.F. Watts, Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Walter Savage Landor and John Ruskin. He married Georgiana Macdonald in 1860; their son, Philip, was born in 1861. Several changes of address later and following the birth of a second child, Margaret, they settled in Fulham at The Grange, North End Lane. By the 1870s he could depend mostly on private collectors and was able to travel in Italy. His oil paintings were an important part of the first exhibition of the Grosvenor Gallery at its opening in 1877. He later he joined the Royal Academy, contributing to its exhibitions, before resigning in 1893. A retrospective exhibition of his works took place at the New Gallery in 1892; he was raised to the baronetcy two years later.

Edward Burne-Jones died from angina in 1898; a memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey.

Source: DNB

The pre-eminent holding of Burne-Jones's papers in the world, the collection comprises extensive correspondence with major figures in the art world including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Ruskin and important manuscript books belonging to the artist: two note books kept as a student at Oxford, two of Burne-Jones's account books with Morris & Co. and a handwritten list of all his designs. Correspondence, comprising eight boxes and one bound volume, includes significant sets of letters from Algernon Charles Swinburne, accompanied by a number of MS poems; intimate correspondence with John Ruskin (including letters sent from early trips to Italy), with a typescript corrected by Ruskin; important personal and professional communications with Dante Gabriel Rossetti; and letters from many other prominent figures, including George Frederic Watts, Ford Madox Brown and William Holman Hunt. Also included with the collection are an important set of letters from A. Warington Taylor (business manager of Morris & Co.) to E.R. Robson. Amidst Burne-Jones's letters are various notable sketches and self-portraits, including a number of letters presented as mock-medieval manuscripts, with elaborate coloured pen illustrations, while the pass books with Morris & Co. contain prominent cartoon illustrations of Burne-Jones and Morris, presented as mock-window designs.

Please cite as Fitzwilliam Museum Archives, Edward Burne-Jones Papers, BURNE-JONES