Date: Fri 17-Jul-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: CAROLL

Quick Words:

Edward-Burne-Jones-MMA

Full Text:

Edward Burne-Jones: At Metropolitan Museum Of Art

(w/cuts)

By Stephen May

NEW YORK CITY -- In one of the most sumptuous, sprawling exhibitions in recent

memory, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is marking the centennial of the death

of the prolific English Victorian artist, Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898). The

display is of such dimensions that the Met is one of the few American museums

that could handle it.

Talented in many artistic disciplines, Burne-Jones's work, in spite of its

antiquated subject matter, continues to appeal to a wide audience. This

retrospective is an essential stop for fans of Pre-Raphaelite art and

followers of the Arts and Crafts movement.

The show is interesting because of the space it devotes to Burne-Jones's work

in the decorative arts, where he set new standards of excellence and beauty.

The combination of paintings, furniture, textiles, ceramics, illustrated

books, and jewelry adds up to a satisfying tribute to one of the most gifted

and celebrated artists of the Nineteenth Century.

For all his fame and talent, Burne-Jones's reputation began to decline even

before he died. The onset of Impressionism and the dated nature of his

subjects meant that, even more than some of his less gifted contemporaries, he

suffered from years of subsequent neglect and underexposure.

This artist deserved better. From his early days as a pupil of the redoubtable

Pre-Raphaelite leader, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, through his creation of

jewel-like watercolors and colossal paintings on Classical and medieval

themes, to his work as a designer of grand tapestries and glorious stained

glass, Burne-Jones left a rich and varied artistic legacy.

There has been a resurgence of interest in his oeuvre in recent years,

culminating in this huge exhibition. On view at the Metropolitan Museum

through September 6, it travels to the Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery,

Birmingham, England, (October 17-January 17, 1999) and the Musee d'Orsay in

Paris (March 1-June 6, 1999).

With some 170 works gathered from museums and private collections the world

over, "Edward Burne-Jones: Victorian Artist-Dreamer" offers a full opportunity

to study and savor this extraordinarily prolific artist's diverse output.

Epochal Conflict

In some respects, Burne-Jones's life epitomized the dilemma of a Nineteenth

Century thinker confronting the implications of a new scientific and

materialistic age. Reacting to the excesses of industrialization and the

zealous religiosity of his times, he found beauty and a new spiritualism in

the sensualism and virtues of bygone days.

Rebelling against the domination of English art by the Royal Academy, which

trained artists to pursue ideal beauty in the grand manner of the Italian

Renaissance, in 1848 a gaggle of young painters formed the Pre-Raphaelite

Brotherhood. They were convinced that art created before the Sixteenth Century

Italian master Raphael was pure, while existing academic British art was

bankrupt.

Their central figures, William Holman Hunt (1827-1910), John Everett Millais

(1829-1896) and Rossetti (1828-1882), promoted a return to nature and a highly

factual and painstakingly detailed style of painting. Utilizing sharp detail

and bright colors, they rejected the concept of ideal beauty -- by which the

artist improved on reality -- favoring instead a factual approach based on

meticulous observation.

"Pre-Raphaelitism has but one principle," proclaimed John Ruskin, the group's

influential champion, "that of absolute, uncompromising truth in all that it

does, obtained by working everything, down to the most minute detail, from

nature and from nature only." With this formidable backing, the Pre-Raphaelite

Brotherhood set out to recapture the clarity and spiritual purity of earlier

art and times. The Brotherhood disbanded in 1854, but its style and ideas

affected every aspect of English life and art to the end of the Nineteenth

Century.

In many ways the most intriguing of all the second-generation Pre-Raphaelites,

Burne-Jones was born in rapidly industrializing Birmingham, the son of a

gilder and framemaker. His mother died soon after his birth, and he was raised

by his somewhat distant father and nurses. In the Birmingham schools he

displayed a talent for drawing caricatures of his teachers.

Entering Oxford College in 1853 he met classmate William Morris, who became

his lifelong friend and colleague. Fired by ideals of the High Church

movement, both intended to enter the ministry, but their studies of medieval

art and literature and a tour of northern French cathedrals in 1855 convinced

them to dedicate their lives to art rather than religion.

Already inspired by the ideas of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Burne-Jones

looked up Rossetti in London at the Working Men's College in Great Ormond

Street, where he was giving art classes, and immediately fell under his spell.

The aspiring artist left Oxford without taking his degree and became

Rossetti's disciple.

Profound Influence

Before long Morris joined his college chum in London, and in 1856 they moved

into rooms at 17 Red Lion Square, which had previously been occupied by

Rossetti. With the latter's help, they decorated and furnished the quarters in

high Pre-Raphaelite fashion. Known to early friends simply as Jones, the

artist adopted the name of Burne-Jones around this time.

His friend Morris (1834-1896), one of the most remarkable men of his time,

soon gave up painting and founded the decorative arts firm that immortalized

his name. Its products, designed by Morris of his artist friends, notably

Burne-Jones, had enormous impact. A man of prodigious energy, Morris wrote

vast amounts of poetry, became an atheist, and was a dedicated advocate of

Socialism. His influence on the Arts and Crafts movement and the whole field

of modern design was profound.

In contrast to Morris's social activism, Burne-Jones, who was brought up in

close proximity to Birmingham's industrial slums, sought to ignore the harsh

realities of city life in Victorian England. "The more materialistic science

becomes," he declared, "the more angels shall I paint."

Except for a few informal lessons from Rossetti, Burne-Jones was a self-taught

artist. He promptly became a leader among the slightly younger

Pre-Raphaelites, part of the aesthetic movement that sought to rise above the

materialism and bad taste engendered by England's Industrial Revolution. To

the aesthetic mind, the essential concern of art was beauty. The languidly

reclining female figure, wearing an expression of gentle melancholy or dreamy

abstraction, depicted in bold, harmonious colors, became a staple of

Burne-Jones and his compatriots.

For this artist and his Pre-Raphaelite colleagues, the stakes regarding

English culture were high. "Nothing less than the complete reform of British

art was at stake," Delaware Art Museum curator Jeanette Toohey has observed.

In 1860, the up-and-coming artist married Georgiana Mcdonald, daughter of a

minister and one of a famous group of sisters, another of whom was Rudyard

Kipling's mother. Georgie bore him two children and was an heroically loyal

wife, sticking it out through a turbulent period when Burne-Jones was

infatuated with Maria Zambaco, a beautiful and passionate Londoner of Greek

extraction.

Burne-Jones captured the enchantress Maria's exotic appeal in a portrait in

1870, a year after he prevented her from committing suicide. The artist's

amorous feelings were indicated by Cupid's arrow bearing his signature, while

she holds a white dittany, a flower symbolizing passion. Maria's book is open

to a miniature of the artist's well-known "Chant d'Amour." Their affair

continued well into the early 1870s and perhaps longer, but the Burne-Jones's

marriage survived.

With Ruskin's encouragement, Burne-Jones made a number of inspirational trips

to Italy, which helped him develop a highly individual style of painting

rooted in Rossettian Pre-Raphaelitism, but also blended with study and

appreciation of Classical and Renaissance art, particularly that of

Michelangelo and Venetian masters.

At the outset, Burne-Jones created masterful pen and ink drawings, culminating

in "The Wise and Foolish Virgins" (1859), a deft rendering filled with the

young artist's romantic commitment to the subject. He also turned out a range

of small, exquisite and highly finished watercolors, which were greatly

admired by his friend, poet Algernon Swinburne.

Ambitious Suite

By the mid-1860s Burne-Jones was at work on an ambitious suite of large

paintings, known as the "Saint-George and the Dragon" series (1865-1866),

destined for the home of a fellow artist. Of particular interest in the Met

show are two canvases, long thought lost, which were recently discovered in a

dormitory at Hanover College in Indiana. "Princess Sabra Drawing the Lot," a

standout, is a frieze-like composition showing the ill-fated princess standing

with her attendants.

A later series of paintings, "Cupid and Psyche," became a frieze of murals in

1872. Commissioned by George Howard, the future Ninth Earl of Carlisle, to

decorate his large new house in London, the dozen canvases had been out of

public view for decades. At the Met they are installed in an entrancing

recreation of the room for which they were originally conceived.

Another major Burne-Jones work acquired by Howard was a somber, almost

monochromatic rendering, "The Annunciation" (1876-1879), a 98« by 41-inch

painting. The model for the head of the Virgin was the beautiful Julia

Jackson, mother of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell.

The combination of his romantic sensibility and sheer painting gifts made

Burne-Jones's canvases immensely popular in Victorian England. His reputation

escalated with the inaugural exhibition at London's new much-ballyhooed

Grosvenor Gallery in 1877. The eight substantial paintings he displayed at

that first show represented an impressive demonstration that, as British art

scholar Francis Spalding has put it, "Burne-Jones had arrived at a mature,

distinctive style, dependent for its success on a strange mixture of Gothic

spirituality and Classical grace, wrapped in the respectability of the

Renaissance."

Notable among the works unveiled in 1877 was "The Beguiling of Merlin"

(1873-1874). It had been commissioned by Frederick Leyland, the wealthy

merchant for whom Whistler created the famous Peacock Room in 1876 (now at the

Freer Gallery of Art in Washington). In 1894, reflecting his affection for one

of his greatest patrons, Burne-Jones designed Leyland's tomb.

In 1878 Burne-Jones's contribution to the Grosvenor Gallery display featured

two famous oil paintings, "The Love Song" ("Chant d'Amour") (1868-1877) and

"Laus Veneris" (1873-1878). Venetian-influenced works that are often regarded

as pendants, they are hauntingly beautiful to this day.

Reviewing the exhibition for the Nation, Henry James poked gentle fun at the

placement of figures in "Chant," but added that it would be hard to "know

where to look for a more delicate rendering of a lovesick swain." He also

considered Burne-Jones's colors "a great achievement," creating the effect of

"some mellow Giorgione or some richly glowing Titian." The famed American

expatriot observer concluded that Burne-Jones's "great ensemble...pictures...

placed the artist head and shoulders above his peers."

The enduringly appealing "Laus Veneris," a medievalized version of Classical

myth, is a symphony of glowing hues that captivated Nineteenth Century

viewers. It is regarded by many as the painter's finest achievement.

From all reports, Burne-Jones was a man of great charm, surprising wit,

intelligence and human understanding. He counted among his many friends both

Ruskin and Whistler.

Friendships Tested

Those friendships were put to the test in 1877. In reviewing the initial

Grosvenor Gallery exhibition, Ruskin praised Burne-Jones's work ("I know these

[pictures] will be immortal"), but vigorously attacked Whistler's "Nocturne in

Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket." Stung by the criticism, Whistler sued for

libel.

Ruskin called Burne-Jones as the principal witness in his defense. Although

ostensibly friendly with both sides, Burne-Jones's rather equivocal testimony

appears to have been motivated by jealousy of Whistler, as well as the

conviction that a critic ought to have the right to criticize, without being

sued for stating his opinion.

While Whistler won the case -- and was famously awarded a farthing in damages

-- he was bankrupted by the costs of the trial. Retreating to Venice for more

than a year, he left Burne-Jones free to consolidate his ascendancy in

London's art world.

In addition to his paintings and works on paper, Burne-Jones poured much of

his creative energy into designing decorative works. He saw the decorative

arts in a "holistic way," says Delaware Museum curator Toohey, drawing "no

distinction between the fine arts and decorative work." Burne-Jones and Morris

recognized that it required a skilled artist to create a fine painting -- or

high-quality tapestry or stained glass. So "it required no shifting in

thinking for Burne-Jones to do easel paintings or design glass," observes

Toohey.

In 1861 the enterprising Morris launched his legendary firm of Morris,

Marshall, Faulkner & Co -- touted as Fine Art Workmen -- with Rossetti,

Burne-Jones and painter Ford Madox Brown among the founding partners.

Thereafter, Burne-Jones dedicated his decorative artist's talents to Morris

projects -- furniture, tiles, wallpaper, needlework, stained glass and

illustrated books.

Stained glass was his special forte. Together with Morris, they revived the

art of craftsmanship in Britain, and triggered the worldwide Arts and Crafts

movement.

Burne-Jones's massively conceived figures of prophets, saints and sibyls were

adapted by Morris into what is considered the finest stained glass made since

the Middle Ages. Much of it is still in situ in churches and public buildings

throughout England, but several impressive panels of glass are exhibited at

the Met.

"Saint Mark," designed by Burne-Jones in 1874 and executed by Morris & Co in

1883, is characterized by the crisply rendered figure and pure, intense colors

advocated by Morris. This striking Morris panel was one of five displayed at

the Foreign Fair in Boston in 1883, a rare effort to advertise the firm's

wares on this side of the Atlantic.

Painted furniture formed a brief part of the early work of the Morris firm, as

exemplified by "The Backgammon Players" (1862), two paintings by Burne-Jones

on the doors of a cabinet, every inch of which was covered with imaginative

decoration. The piece sold readily, but the partners soon decided that this

kind of modern medievalism was not a promising direction, and turned

increasingly to developing stained glass, textiles and wallpapers.

Forceful Designs

Among the illuminated manuscripts on which Burne-Jones worked for Morris was a

folio for Virgil's "Aeneid" (1874-1875). The artist's small but forceful

designs, copied by skilled craftsmen onto vellum, are represented in the

exhibition by a manuscript owned by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, a major

collector of Pre-Raphaelite works.

In another collaboration with Morris, Burne-Jones contributed many

illustrations to publications of the Kelmscott Press, founded in 1891. Morris

designed the type and decorative settings and Burne-Jones supplied the

pictures. His illustrations for the folio Chaucer (1896) represent the

artist's crowning achievement in this medium.

A high point of the New York retrospective is the display of imposing

tapestries designed for Morris & Co, including a magnificent pair, "Angeli

Laudantes" and "Angeli Ministrantes," both woven in 1894 and featuring two

angels amidst richly decorative settings.

Even more impressive is the famed "Holy Grail" series (1895-1896), originally

designed for the dining room of an English country estate, which had never

before been seen in America. These works, with their densely patterned

designs, masterful figure compositions and shimmering complimentary colors,

summarize Burne-Jones's lifelong fascination with the Arthurian legend and

romantic symbolism. Vibrant and marvelously preserved, they are among the

great masterpieces of late Victorian decorative art.

Few artists have attempted so many ambitious series as Burne-Jones,

exemplified by a dozen splendid gouaches of the Perseus Series (1875-1885),

and three of the four canvases depicting the story of "The Briar Rose"

(1872-1892), which were exhibited in London to great acclaim in the 1890s. The

standout among the latter, based on the story of "The Sleeping Beauty," was

"The Council Chamber," showing the king and his courtiers asleep. This

enormous work, with its exquisitely painted details and sweeping grandeur is

in the collection of the Delaware Art Museum, a leading repository of

Pre-Raphaelite work.

Among Burne-Jones's most acclaimed later paintings were "The Golden Stairs"

(1876-1880), "The Mill" (1870-1882), and "King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid"

(circa 1883), each a large and compelling image.

In his maturity, Burne-Jones frequently painted subjects from Classical myths

in the medieval spirit to which he was inclined by habit and association. In

his brightly hued "Danae and the Tower of Brass" (1888), he illustrated the

tragic story of Danae, standing in a crimson robe watching the building of the

brazen structure that was to be her prison. The model for Danae's head was

Marie Spartali, an admired beauty from London's Anglo-Greek community, whose

equally comely sister, Christine, modeled for Whistler's celebrated painting,

"La Princesse du pays de al Porcelaine" (1863-1864), which today adorns the

Freer's Peacock Room.

Burne-Jones continued to create impressive, intensely hued oil paintings until

the end. A striking example, "Vespertina Quies" (1893), which means "Quiet of

the Evening," is a somewhat enigmatic portrayal of a pensive young woman,

dressed in deep, rich blue, who may be contemplating taking the veil as a nun.

Morris Tribute

Shaken and saddened by the death of his dear friend Morris in 1896,

Burne-Jones painted "Hope" (1896), a large canvas for a patron in

Massachusetts. It shows a gowned, flower-bearing woman with her hand raised

and her ankles in chains, in a prison cell.

In the 1890s Burne-Jones spent much time on several works relating to the

Arthurian legend, culminating in "The Sleep of King Arthur in Avalon," which

he began in 1881 as a commission for George Howard, but never finished. A kind

of personal statement and swan song into which he poured his feelings toward

the end of his life, it measures over 21-feet long and 9-feet high. Now owned

by the Museo de Arte in Ponce, Puerto Rico, "Sleep" was too large to travel

but is represented in the Met show by an ample photograph.

By the turn of the century Burne-Jones was regarded as England's most

significant Nineteenth Century painter, after Constable and Turner. Met

director Philippe de Montebello says that Burne-Jones "upon his death a

century ago, was widely considered the most important painter in Europe."

The Met's dazzling display and helpful catalogue will undoubtedly open many an

American visitors' eyes to the virtuosity and profound painting gifts of this

artist. Fittingly, his lyrical oils and luminous watercolors share the

spotlight with his equally impressive achievements in the decorative arts. All

in all, this is a welcome and overdue homage to a prolific, high-minded

Victorian Renaissance man whose work will go down in history.

Accompanying the exhibition is a handsome, 372-page catalogue of the same

title, with 152 color and 214 black-and-white Illustrations. Written by

British authorities Stephen Wildman, John Christian, Alan Crawford and

Laurence des Cars, it contains descriptive entries on works in the new show,

and essays on Burne-Jones' contributions as a decorative artist and his

reputation and influence in Europe. Published by the Metropolitan Museum and

distributed by Harry N. Abrams, Inc, it sells for $75 hardcover, and $55

softcover.