BURNE-JONES, Sir EDWARD COLEY, Bart. (1833-98). An English painter. He was born in Birmingham, August 28, 1S33. He was in tended for the Church. In his youth lie was sent to King Edward's Grammar School in his native town. and entered Exeter College, Oxford. There he formed his intimate and life long friendship with William Morris, who, him self leaning to poetry and the decorative arts, encouraged Burne-Jones as well to seek art as a career. Later. in London, Dante Gabriel Ros setti also strove to impress upon hint the same idea. So, under the influence of these two men, Burne-Jones cut short his university course and established himself in London. with Rossetti as his master. In order to support himself while studying and painting, lie designed numerous cartoons for stained-glass wituh»vs. Among these works is the Saint Cecilia window at Christ Church College, Oxford. Burne-Jones early made the acquaintance of Ruskin, whose writings. no doubt. greatly influenced him in his art. Of the Pre-Raphaelite painters of that period (see PRE-RAPII A ELITES ) he seems to have been the one who in time became most completely emanci pated from the vagaries and extravagances that marked the early works of that school. and by his serious devotion to art made himself worthy of the cult and following which Ile afterwards created. A man of wide culture and great po etic feeling, lie naturally found inspiration for his brush in romantic legends and classic song and story. Ilis master. Rossetti, says of his pic
tures that "they exhibit gorgeous variegation of color, sustained pitch of imagination, and wist ful, sorrowful beauty, all conspiring to make them not only unique in English work, but in the work of all times and all nations." Burne Jones has been extravagantly worshiped and praised, while at the same time his work was subject to the most bitter detraction. It was even held up to ridicule in the pages of Punch, and he himself alluded to by W. S. Gilbert in Patience as the 'greenery-yallery, Grosvenor-gal lery' young man. But years of patient, cheerful, dignified work, marked by strong personal thought and expression, brought Burne-Jones at last to a sound reputation. He was made a D.C.L. of Oxford, was decorated with the French Legion of Honor, and in 1894 was made a bar onet. The Royal Academy also elected him an associate in 1885, but, as it did not further ad vance him to the full honors of academician, he afterwards resigned the associateship. Among his best-known works arc ••Venus's .11irror." "Chant d'Amour," "The Golden Stair." "The Wheel of Fortune," and "Cophetut and the Beg gar Maid." Among his finest water-color draw ings are the "Wine of Circe," "Love Among the Roses," "Dies Domini," and "Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter." Borne-Jones died in Lon don, June 17, 1898. Consult Bell, Edward Borne Jones (London, 1892).