THE
P RTAL
January 2019
Page 13
Unlike many artists, Burne-Jones was unusual in of his London residence. He left the choice of subject
having been educated at university rather than art to the artist.
school. His upbringing was in industrial Birmingham.
In telling the story of Perseus, Burne-Jones devised
The early works displayed here will interest some, but
a set of ten subjects to be hung in a band around the
I am afraid they were not what I had come to see.
room encased within a decorative acanthus border. He
In 1867, he moved to a house in Fulham known as also designed panelling and lighting for the space to
the Grange. Here he had enough space to embark on create an immersive experience. Between 1875 and
a succession of large-scale projects that preoccupied 1885, he completed the cartoons for the panels, only
him for the rest of his life. For these he made countless four of which were eventually worked up into finished
preparatory studies, many of which were considered oils. The original scheme was also to include four relief
panels on oak, of which only one was completed. It is
works of art in their own right.
shown here together with a selection of the cartoons
He visits to Italy on four occasions, in 1859, 1862, and oils to make up the cycle.
1871 and 1873, encouraged Burne-Jones’s inventive
approach to the body. Male figures tended to be The Briar Rose
troubled and expressive, while he portrayed women
Based on the story of Sleeping Beauty, The Briar
as beautiful, sometimes sinister. Burne-Jones was Rose consists of four panels on which Burne-Jones
experimental in his use of media, employing gouache worked intermittently between 1874 and 1890. The
with chalk and later using metallic pigments. For his title derives from the version of the fairy tale published
work in the applied arts, he adopted a boldly stylised by the brothers Grimm.
manner, reserving a more refined approach for
figurative studies.
All four scenes represent the same moment suspended
in time: the prince enters a realm of arrested motion
As well as his interest in grace and beauty, he was in which figures lie overcome by sleep. As the artist
also fascinated by the grotesque. He produced comic explained: ‘I want it to stop with the princess asleep
drawings that betray inner fears and fantasies, even and to tell no more, to leave all the afterwards to the
appearing himself as the butt of his own humour.
invention and imagination of people’. The canvases
were successfully exhibited at the London art dealers
From 1870 Burne-Jones experienced a period of Agnew’s before being shown to a broader audience
liberation which he later described as the “seven at Toynbee Hall in the East End, affirming the artist’s
blissfullest years of work that I have ever had; no fuss, belief in art for all. They were subsequently bought
no publicity, no teasing about exhibiting, no getting by the financier and MP, Alexander Henderson, and
pictures done against time”. He is, of course famous for installed in the saloon of his country residence, Buscot
portraits. They show inner feeling rather than physical Park in Oxfordshire. Ten smaller panels were added to
likeness or social status. He avoided fashionable society link the paintings around the room. Morris provided
portraiture, preferring to focus on family and friends verses that were lettered beneath the framework of the
on whom he could project the pale and enigmatic four paintings. These are repeated here to recreate the
beauty that became the trademark of his style. Burne- ensemble.”
Jones was recorded as saying: ‘My pictures are for the
people – my inner life for myself and my friends.’
For me, the highlight was the final room, seven. This
concentrated on Burne-Jones as designer.
He had a fascination with myth and legend. This drew
him to work with groups and sequences of images.
Although he was a decorative artist, seeing little
This found full expression in his two great narrative distinction between the fine and applied arts, he
cycles: Perseus and The Briar Rose, both of which have adapted his ideas in different media, designing
been reassembled for this exhibition.
for stained glass, tapestry, embroidery, furniture,
book illustration as well as painting. In this he was
The Perseus Series
supported by a circle of wealthy collectors for whom
The Perseus series recounts the story of the Greek Burne-Jones represented the ultimate in artistic taste
hero’s quest for Medusa, the Gorgon whose gaze and refinement.
turned men to stone, and his rescue of Andromeda
from a sea monster. The commission came in 1875
Designs commissioned by Morris & Co. were his
when the young Conservative politician and future most regular source of income. With the reorganisation
Prime Minister Arthur Balfour approached Burne- of Morris’s company under Morris’s sole direction in
Jones about making paintings for the drawing-room
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