Burne-Jones, Sir Edward Coley

Burne-Jones, Sir Edward Coley, professional name of EDWARD COLEY JONES (1833-1898), English painter, designer, and illustrator, born in Birmingham and educated at the University of Oxford. Trained by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Burne-Jones shared the Pre-Raphaelites' concern with restoring to art what they considered the purity of form, stylization, and high moral tone of medieval painting and design. His paintings, inspired by medieval, classical, and biblical themes, are noted for their sentimentality and dreamlike romanticized style; they are generally considered among the finest works of the Pre-Raphaelite school. They include King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid (1884, Tate Gallery, London).

Burne-Jones was also prominent in the revival of medieval applied arts led by his Oxford friend the poet and artist William Morris. For Morris's firm he designed stained-glass windows, mosaics, and tapestries. His windows can be seen in many English churches, including Christ Church, Oxford, and Birmingham Cathedral. He also illustrated books of Morris's Kelmscott Press, notably Chaucer (1896). Burne-Jones was knighted in 1894.

Photographs by Carol Gerten-Jackson.

• The Wheel of Fortune
  1875-83 (30 Kb); Oil on canvas; Musee d'Orsay
  

• The Angel
  1881 (30 Kb); Oil on panel; Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum
  

• The Morning of the Resurrection
  1882 (90 Kb)