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diff --git a/41583-0.txt b/41583-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d9e0b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/41583-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,924 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41583 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 41583-h.htm or 41583-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41583/41583-h/41583-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41583/41583-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://archive.org/details/burnejonesocad00balduoft + + +Transcriber's Note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + Every effort has been made to replicate this text as + faithfully as possible. + + + + + +Masterpieces in Colour +Edited by - - +T. Leman Hare + +BURNE-JONES +1833-1898 + + * * * * * + +"MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR" SERIES + + + ARTIST. AUTHOR. + + VELAZQUEZ. S. L. BENSUSAN. + REYNOLDS. S. L. BENSUSAN. + TURNER. C. LEWIS HIND. + ROMNEY. C. LEWIS HIND. + GREUZE. ALYS EYRE MACKLIN. + BOTTICELLI. HENRY B. BINNS. + ROSSETTI. LUCIEN PISSARRO. + BELLINI. GEORGE HAY. + FRA ANGELICO. JAMES MASON. + REMBRANDT. JOSEF ISRAELS. + LEIGHTON. A. LYS BALDRY. + RAPHAEL. PAUL G. KONODY. + HOLMAN HUNT. MARY E. COLERIDGE. + TITIAN. S. L. BENSUSAN. + MILLAIS. A. LYS BALDRY. + CARLO DOLCI. GEORGE HAY. + GAINSBOROUGH. MAX ROTHSCHILD. + TINTORETTO. S. L. BENSUSAN. + LUINI. JAMES MASON. + FRANZ HALS. EDGCUMBE STALEY. + VAN DYCK. PERCY M. TURNER. + LEONARDO DA VINCI. M. W. BROCKWELL. + RUBENS. S. L. BENSUSAN. + WHISTLER. T. MARTIN WOOD. + HOLBEIN. S. L. BENSUSAN. + BURNE-JONES. A. LYS BALDRY. + VIGÉE LE BRUN. C. HALDANE MACFALL. + CHARDIN. PAUL G. KONODY. + FRAGONARD. C. HALDANE MACFALL. + MEMLINC. W. H. J. & J. C. WEALE. + CONSTABLE. C. LEWIS HIND. + RAEBURN. JAMES L. CAW. + JOHN S. SARGENT. T. MARTIN WOOD. + LAWRENCE. S. L. BENSUSAN. + DÜRER. H. E. A. FURST. + MILLET. PERCY M. TURNER. + WATTEAU. C. LEWIS HIND. + COROT. SIDNEY ALLNUTT. + +_Others in Preparation_. + + * * * * * + + +[Illustration: PLATE I.--THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. Frontispiece + +(In the possession of R. H. Benson, Esq.) + +Apart from its technical beauty and its charm of design, this picture +has a special interest as the only contribution which the artist ever +made to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy. It was shown at Burlington +House in 1886, and was painted purposely, during the months that +intervened between his election as an Associate in the summer of 1885 +and the opening of the 1886 exhibition. In the treatment of the subject +there is a touch of slightly grim humour, unusual in the art of +Burne-Jones, a humour which finds expression particularly in the face of +the mermaid, who drags a human being to her cave at the bottom of the +sea without thinking or caring that her sport means death to him.] + + +BURNE-JONES + +by + +A. LYS BALDRY + +Illustrated with Eight Reproductions in Colour + +[Illustration: IN SEMPITERNUM.] + + + + + + + +London: T. C. & E. C. Jack +New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Plate + + I. The Depths of the Sea Frontispiece + In the possession of R. H. Benson, Esq. + Page + II. Sidonia von Bork 14 + In the possession of W. Graham Robertson, Esq. + + III. Sponsa di Libano 24 + Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool + + IV. Sibylla Delphica 34 + Manchester Art Gallery + + V. The Mill 40 + South Kensington Museum + + VI. King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid 50 + The Tate Gallery + + VII. Danae (The Tower of Brass) 60 + Glasgow Corporation Art Gallery + + VIII. The Enchantments of Nimue 70 + South Kensington Museum + +[Illustration: Drawing of Burne-Jones] + +The place which should be assigned to Sir Edward Burne-Jones in the +history of modern art is by no means easy to define, for his work with +its unusual qualities of intention and achievement does not lend itself +readily to classification. At the outset of his career he might with +some justice have been numbered with the Pre-Raphaelites, because the +first influences to which he responded were those which directed the +Pre-Raphaelite movement, and because in his earliest productions he +showed that these influences had counted for much in the shaping of his +æsthetic inclinations. But as he developed he made plainer and more +convincing the assertion of his individuality, he ceased to be simply a +follower of a movement, and evolved for himself a system of æsthetic +practice which was personal both in aim and in manner of expression. +That in formulating this system he borrowed much from early Italian art, +that he based himself upon certain remote masters, with whose primitive +methods he was deeply in sympathy, can scarcely be denied; but in this +reference to the past he did not show the blind readiness to imitate +which is the vice of the copyist; he altered and adapted, varied this +principle and modified that detail, until he had with the material he +collected built up a quite complete superstructure, which was Italian +only in its foundation. And in this process of building up he was guided +surely enough by a right instinct for decorative propriety, an instinct +which was partly innate, partly the outcome of associations by which he +was largely affected throughout his life. If his personality had been +less strong, or his æsthetic preference less defined, these associations +might easily have cramped his imagination and narrowed him into the +repetition of a set formula; but his intelligence was so keen and his +conviction concerning his artistic mission was so clear, that he was +able to overcome all the obstacles by which he might have been turned +from his right course. His career, thanks to the consistency with which +he worked, became a record of continuous effort to realise an ideal that +lacked neither nobility nor intellectual variety. + +[Illustration: PLATE II.--SIDONIA VON BORK + +(In the possession of W. Graham Robertson, Esq.) + +As an early picture, painted while Burne-Jones was still under the +influence of Rossetti, "Sidonia von Bork" illustrates characteristically +a particular phase of the artist's practice; one of much importance in +the evolution of his art. "Sidonia von Bork" was one of the characters +in a romance called "Sidonia the Sorceress," which was written by a +Swiss clergyman. The book was a favourite of Rossetti's, so that +evidently Burne-Jones was influenced by his master both in his choice +and in his treatment of a subject from its pages. A reprint of the story +was issued by William Morris from the Kelmscott Press.] + +It is probable that some of his consistency, and a very large part of +his artistic conviction, came from the manner of his preparation for the +profession in which he attained such exceptional success. Unlike most +artists he did not begin by acquiring a knowledge of the mechanism of +painting, and did not proceed to apply trained technical skill in +experiments intended to determine the direction in which he might +practise profitably in after life. In his case the process was reversed, +for his direction was settled before he had learned even the +rudiments of pictorial practice, and the time which other men would have +given to experiment he devoted to seeking how he would best realise the +ideas that were finally formed in his mind. Tentative work, to test the +popular point of view, he never produced; he began straight away with +what he knew to be his right material, and the only difference which is +to be noticed between his first and his last paintings is a difference +in technical facility. The uncertainties of handling in his earlier +pictures disappeared in those which he painted in later life, but of +mental uncertainty no trace is at any time to be discovered. + +Yet the curious fact must be noted that this artist, with his strong +personality, his great gifts, and his absorbing devotion to a splendid +ideal, chose his profession by a kind of afterthought--almost by +accident. There is no record in his case of a boyhood spent in struggles +against a fate which seemed to forbid him all satisfaction of his +dearest aspirations; there is not even evidence that he had any artistic +aspirations at all. He grew up, practically to manhood, before he +discovered that he had either the wish or the capacity to attempt any +form of æsthetic expression, and his powers lay completely dormant +through all those youthful years which have been to most other artists a +time of longing after the apparently unattainable and of striving to +follow the promptings of nature and temperament. + +This strange torpidity of the artistic side of his intelligence was, no +doubt, due to the surroundings among which he passed his childhood. He +was born on August 28, 1833, at Birmingham, where there was in those +days little enough to foster a love of art, and in the respectable but +dull atmosphere of a middle-class home he had no chance of any +awakening. His mental activity, however, was shown in the zest with +which he threw himself into the study of the classics during the seven +or eight years that he spent at King Edward's School. He gained at that +time a very thorough knowledge of the classic writings in general and of +classic mythology in particular, which was amplified in after life by +constant reading; and he acquired a student-like habit of research into +the learning of the past which served him well when the time came for +him to picture the fancies that were forming in his mind. + +But at first the purpose of his education was to fit him for the walk of +life which his father wished him to follow. He was, it was decided, to +enter the Church, and in 1853, having won a scholarship at Exeter +College, he went up to Oxford ready and willing enough to work for +success in the profession which seemed so well suited to him. He had at +that time no feeling that his real vocation lay in quite another +direction, or that there was any different way in which his studious +mind might be exercised. The idea of taking orders was not uncongenial +to him, and he began his Oxford life in no spirit of rebellion against +the career which had been mapped out by his elders. + +At Oxford, however, came his awakening. He found himself in contact +there with quite a new phase of existence, in an atmosphere which was +made doubly impressive by its unlikeness to any that he had previously +known, and among surroundings which by their novelty had a great power +to stimulate his imagination. Under such conditions the expansion of his +mind was unusually rapid, and the arousing of his dormant æsthetic +instincts followed immediately. This latter development of a side of his +nature, of which previously he could have been, at best, only dimly +conscious, was greatly assisted by his friendship with a remarkable man +who had entered Exeter College on the same day that he did, and who had +come to Oxford with the same intention of eventually taking holy orders. +This man, William Morris, was destined to play a most important part in +British art activities, and by his militant æstheticism to bring about +many momentous changes in the public taste; and the chance which brought +him and Edward Burne-Jones together, when they were both at the most +impressionable period of life, was especially fortunate. + +The association between the two undergraduates quickly became one of the +closest intimacy. They had mentally much in common, and in them both was +a strain of enthusiasm and poetic fantasy which was an inheritance from +a Celtic ancestry--they were both Welshmen by descent--and by which +their whole attitude to modern existence was determined. Morris had, +perhaps, the more vehement personality and the greater share of the +fighting instinct, while Burne-Jones was more of a dreamer and readier +to occupy himself with abstract fancies; but these small differences of +temperament made their friendship the more mutually valuable, and +helped appreciably to increase the influence which the one had on the +other. At any rate, these days at Oxford saw the beginning of a kind of +mental partnership which gave ultimately to the world a great artist and +a brilliant leader of a wide art movement which has since done much to +alter the whole spirit of domestic decoration in this country. + +A more immediate effect of the intimacy between Morris and Burne-Jones +was, however, the weakening of the intention which had brought them to +the university. The more they dreamed and talked the further their idea +of finding a career in the Church receded, and the stronger grew the +desire which both of them felt for the pursuit of some form of art. +While they were thus hesitating over their plans for the future, +Burne-Jones received a sort of revelation which fixed finally his +half-formed intention to become a painter. He saw by chance some works +by Rossetti, an illustration to a poem by William Allingham and a +water-colour, "Dante's celebration of Beatrice's Birthday," and these, +with some notable Pre-Raphaelite pictures, like Holman Hunt's "Light of +the World" and "The Christian Priest escaping from the Druids," which +were then at Oxford, gave him a veritable inspiration. For Rossetti in +particular he conceived immediately a passionate adoration, and to sit +at the feet of such a master seemed to him the noblest aim in life. From +that moment, indeed, his fate was decided, though some little time had +yet to elapse before his dreams could be realised and his plans +could be put into working shape. + +[Illustration: PLATE III.--SPONSA DI LIBANO + +(Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) + +The first idea for the "Sponsa di Libano" was embodied in one of a +series of pencil designs from the "Song of Solomon," which were prepared +by Burne-Jones in 1876. This picture, the only one out of the series +which he actually completed pictorially, was exhibited at the New +Gallery in 1891. The motive of the composition is explained in the text +which the original drawing illustrated: "Awake, O North Wind; and come, +thou South; blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out." +In the treatment of the subject the artist's poetic fancy and sense of +decorative arrangement are particularly well displayed.] + +For the abandonment of all the ideas which had brought him to the +university was no small matter and not to be lightly undertaken. He had +to think of the disappointment at home which such action on his part +would cause, and he had also to consider what would be his own position +while he was preparing himself for a profession of which he had not so +far had the smallest practical experience. So, with little heart in his +work, he went on reading for his degree until the winter of 1855, when +he came up to London with the intention of seeing in the flesh the man +whom he had hitherto worshipped afar off. He was introduced to Rossetti +at the house of Mr. Vernon Lushington, and by the kindly painter, who +discerned the promise in the young man's tentative drawings, he was +given the heartiest encouragement. A little later he laid before +Rossetti all his hopes and fears, his doubts whether or not he would be +right in leaving Oxford with the purpose which had taken him there still +unfulfilled, and his desire to devote himself irrevocably to the +artistic calling; and instead of suggestions of such compromises as +prudence might have dictated, he received advice to lose no time in +entering upon the career for which he was plainly destined by nature and +inclination. + +Rossetti's interest in his young admirer was no momentary matter; he +backed up the advice he had offered by taking him as a pupil and by +aiding him in many ways to gain a footing in the art world. When +Burne-Jones, having at last shaken the dust of Oxford off his feet, +settled in London early in 1856, he found Rossetti quite ready to +supervise his education and to lead him to that fuller knowledge of art +practice which he so sorely lacked. The method of education adopted +departed very definitely from accustomed lines; it did not involve +attendance at any art school, and it imposed no prolonged course of +drawing from antique figures or of painting still-life studies from +groups of ill-assorted objects. On the contrary, the pupil was +encouraged to begin at what would be considered by academic teachers +the wrong end of things--to struggle, all unversed as he was in +technicalities, with the difficulties of creative effort. Rossetti's +studio was thrown open to him so that he might watch the progress of +the pictures which were on the easel, and a number of the master's +drawings and studies were lent to him to help him in his work at home; +but what training he received was more in the nature of sympathetic +guidance in his attempts at self-expression than of formal direction +along the lines of a recognised school system. Its good effects were +shown in the manner of the young man's development and in the rapid +growth of his individuality; its bad effects in the persistence of +defects of draughtsmanship and brushwork, which were overcome at last by +his extraordinary industry and dogged determination to master all the +difficulties of his craft. + +To his care and advice concerning his pupil's manner of working Rossetti +added consideration for his financial position. Burne-Jones, with but +slender resources and with little chance as yet of earning the means of +support, was having a somewhat hard struggle, which Rossetti did his +best to relieve by introducing him to friends who would interest +themselves in him, and by helping him to get such work as he was capable +of carrying out. One important commission was obtained about the end of +1856, and this commission deserves special mention because it gave +Burne-Jones his first experience in a branch of design in which he was +destined to become an acknowledged master. Messrs. Powell, the +glass-makers, who were making great efforts to improve the quality of +stained glass, had applied to Rossetti for a design for a window. He +declined to undertake this work, and recommended his pupil instead; and +Burne-Jones accordingly prepared a design which was not only accepted +by the firm but enthusiastically approved by Ruskin, who was, so +Rossetti declared in a letter written at the time, "driven wild with +joy" by the merit and quality of the work. This cartoon was followed +during the next three or four years by several others drawn for the same +firm. + +Much that is important in the record of the painter's life is to be +assigned to this short period between the beginning of 1857 and the end +of 1860. In addition to his designs for stained glass, he produced a +large number of pen-and-ink and water-colour drawings, and made his +first experiments in oil-painting; and he took part in the decoration of +the library of the Oxford Union, an ambitious scheme entered into by +Rossetti at the suggestion of Mr. Woodward, the architect of the +building, and carried out, despite many unexpected difficulties, by +Rossetti himself and a band of enthusiastic young artists. These +decorations, which unfortunately fell into a condition of hopeless decay +soon after they were completed, took some six months to execute, and he +was engaged upon his share of the work until the early part of 1859. In +the autumn of that year he paid his first visit to Italy and studied +those early Italian masters with whom, as his after work proved, he was +so deeply and intelligently in sympathy. This visit, indeed, brought +about a marked change in his artistic outlook and helped to lead him +away from the Gothic tendencies which he had first shown--probably as a +result of his association with Morris--into a far more pronounced +inclination for the Italian manner of design. He was married in the +summer of 1860 to Miss Georgina Macdonald, about a month after +Rossetti's marriage to Miss Siddal; and in taking this step he certainly +showed that he had confidence in his professional prospects, a +confidence which was justified by the position he had already made for +himself. + +[Illustration: PLATE IV.--SIBYLLA DELPHICA + +(Manchester Art Gallery) + +In this painting of the Delphic oracle Burne-Jones made no attempt to +reconstruct archæologically an incident from classic times. The +symbolism of the subject appealed to him rather than its possibilities +of being represented realistically, and he treated it in a manner +entirely personal, with strength and decision, but with exquisite +tenderness of poetic sentiment as well. The picture has a certain +intensity of feeling that is especially convincing, and its fine +draughtsmanship, splendid colour, and well-considered suggestion of +movement make it technically of very great importance.] + +The year 1861 must be particularly noted because it marks the +commencement of an undertaking with which Burne-Jones was closely +associated for the rest of his life. William Morris, who had also left +Oxford in 1856 without waiting to take his degree, had gone for rather +less than a year into the office of George Edmund Street, the well-known +architect, with some idea of adopting that profession; and then, +becoming quickly disillusioned, had after some experiments in painting +settled down for a while to literary work. In 1859 he married and went +to live in a house which had been built for him at Bexley Heath; and it +is said that the difficulty he experienced in getting, for the fitting +up of this house, things which would please his fastidious taste and +gratify his intense love of beauty, induced him to consider whether he +could not actively intervene in the much-needed reformation of the +decorative arts. At any rate, less than two years after his marriage, he +was busy with the details of a scheme which was ambitious enough to +satisfy even his love of big things and in which there were endless +possibilities. + +This scheme took definite form towards the end of 1861, when the firm +of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Co. was started in Red Lion Square. +Burne-Jones, naturally enough, was an active sympathiser with the plans +of William Morris, and he showed his sympathy in the most practical +manner by putting his talents as a designer at the disposal of the firm. +From that time onwards he produced in ever-increasing numbers designs +for all kinds of decorative work, stained glass, tapestries, +embroideries, book illustration, &c., in which his amazing fertility of +imagination and exquisite powers of expression had the fullest scope. +The sum total of the work, for which he was responsible during the +period of nearly forty years over which his intimate connection with the +Morris business extended, was almost incredibly large, and proves +convincingly the strenuousness of his lifelong effort. + +For it must be remembered that this mass of decorative work did not by +any means represent the whole of his achievement, but was, in fact, +brought into existence in the intervals of his not less remarkable +activity as a picture painter. The number of his finished pictures in +different mediums was about two hundred, and his cartoons for stained +glass alone make a list of a thousand or more; when to these are added +his designs for other purposes, his sketches and studies, and the rough +notes by which he gave the first visible shape to the mental images +which he proposed to put later on into a completed form, the result +arrived at is simply bewildering. Only by the most unremitting industry +could he have done so much, and only a man with an abnormally prolific +imagination and extraordinary powers of invention could have kept up as +he did the high standard of his art. + +[Illustration: PLATE V.--THE MILL + +(South Kensington Museum) + +This picture is one of those on which Burne-Jones worked at intervals +for several years. Commenced in 1870, and taken up and set aside time +after time, it was not exhibited until 1882, when it appeared at the +Grosvenor Gallery. It is an example, and a very attractive one, of the +daintier side of the artist's practice, a decorative composition planned +with masterly restraint and with a wholly sympathetic understanding of +the charm of pure and unforced sentiment. It has both grace and +distinction.] + +The pictorial work of Burne-Jones during the earlier 'sixties marked +well the manner in which he was finding his way to the full avowal of +his artistic creed. At first he was, as might have been expected, +frankly inclined to imitate Rossetti, and to follow closely in methods +and sentiment the master whom he worshipped and from whom he had +received such invaluable assistance. But gradually this influence waned, +as increasing confidence in his own powers enabled him to assert more +clearly his individual view of his æsthetic responsibilities, and as the +widening of his experience opened up to him fresh aspects of the +artistic problems with which he had to deal. His development was, no +doubt, much assisted by a second visit which he paid to Italy in the +spring of 1862, a visit in which he had as his companion Ruskin, with +whom he was by then on terms of intimacy. He stayed first at Milan and +then went on to Venice, where he remained for some while making copies +of Tintoretto and other masters for Ruskin, and studying for his own +instruction and enjoyment the works of the earlier masters generally and +of Carpaccio particularly. + +During these earlier years he confined himself almost entirely to +working in water-colours, though by his way of using the medium he +gained technical results which had more the strength and richness of +oils than the delicate transparency of water-colour. The few essays he +made in oil-painting at this time were not pictures for exhibition +purposes but pure decorations, like the panels for a painted coffer +designed by William Morris, and a triptych, with the "Annunciation" as +the central panel, and the "Adoration of the Magi" on the wings, which +was commissioned by Mr. Bodley for St. Paul's Church at Brighton. +Definite recognition of the position he had gained among the younger +water-colourists came at the beginning of 1864, when he was elected, +with Fred Walker, an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water +Colours. He was advanced to full membership of the Society in 1868, but +resigned in 1870 because a foolish accusation of impropriety was brought +against one of the compositions he exhibited. He returned, however, in +1886 and remained a member till his death. + +By the paintings he showed in the gallery of the "Old Society" he much +increased his reputation among discriminating art lovers as an artist of +no ordinary importance. People who had known nothing of his work before +found something so new in manner and so distinctive in purpose in the +achievements of this creator of poetic fantasies that he was given more +attention than usually comes to a man who sets before the public +things of an unaccustomed type. That he amply deserved this attention +cannot be questioned, for already he had acquired sufficient command +over the technicalities of water-colour to enable him to put into +a quite convincing form fancies which needed particular delicacy of +interpretation. Of course, he had still very much to learn--no one knew +better than he did how necessary was strenuous labour to overcome his +deficiencies as a craftsman--but his deep sincerity gave character and +meaning to his paintings, and the poetic beauty of his pictorial +inventions fully excused what defects there were in his executive +methods. + +Indeed, to this early period can be assigned several of the works on +which his reputation rests most securely to-day--his "Fair Rosamond," +for instance, his first painting of "The Annunciation," a subject which +he treated more than once, and his exquisite picture of "The Merciful +Knight," in which there was no trace left of Rossetti's direction, but +instead a clear expression of a quite personal view of art. No better +proof could have been given of the strength of his character than was +afforded by the rapidity with which he found his own way, and by the +completeness of his emancipation from the influence of a man who was +both his master and his friend--an influence which plainly dominated him +when he painted his earliest water-colours of "Clara von Bork" and +"Sidonia von Bork," both of which were entirely in Rossetti's manner. +But in the three or four years which intervened between the production +of these two little pictures and the completion of the far more +ambitious composition, "The Merciful Knight," he had learned the secret +of his own powers, and he had found how unnecessary it was for him to +lean for support upon any one else. + +With this knowledge of himself, and with this consciousness of his +capacity to take an independent position in the art world, came an +increase of his activity as a painter. His water-colours became more +numerous and more important, and he began to paint in oils several large +pictures which he worked at with characteristic patience, setting them +aside often for quite considerable periods and returning to them every +now and again as opportunity offered. His manner of working, indeed, +showed plainly the fertility of his mind; new ideas occurred to him in +rapid succession, and his habit was to put them into a first rough shape +on paper or canvas and to leave them to be carried to completion by slow +stages with often long intervals between. One result of his method was +that he frequently repeated the same subject with variations in +treatment that were the outcome of some fresh consideration of the +motive--each repetition, however, was an independent conception, not a +mere reproduction of what he had done before. + +But there was another result which must be noted, because it has to be +taken into account in any attempt to make a chronological list of his +paintings or to define the character of his art at different +periods--the works he exhibited were not put before the public in +anything like the order of their production. Sometimes a picture which +had been painted only a few months before was shown with one which had +been for years in his studio awaiting some comparatively small additions +to bring it to absolute completeness; sometimes all the things he +exhibited in a particular year were new works; sometimes old ones which +had been taken up and put aside over and over again. Consequently, it +is useless to try to classify his productions exactly, and it is +hopeless to base any theories about his development as an artist upon +the sequence of his public appearances. All that can be said is that his +evolution was steady and progressive, and that his apparent reversions +now and again to his earlier manner were due not to any halting in his +conviction but simply to the fact that some piece of work which had been +lying by, possibly for years, had at last been finished and exhibited. +Practically the only periods which can be recognised in his art are the +comparatively brief one when he was definitely under Rossetti's +influence, and the far longer one when he was working out his own +destiny unassisted. A certain inclination towards Rossetti's colour +feeling he retained for some while after he had freed himself of the +technical mannerisms which he derived from his master, and for nearly +twenty years traces of this colour sympathy can be detected, but for the +rest of his career he was as individual in his management of colour as +he was in design or in the sentiment of his work. + +[Illustration: PLATE VI.--KING COPHETUA AND THE BEGGAR MAID + +(The Tate Gallery) + +The old story of the king who succumbed to the charms of a simple beggar +maid has inspired many artists, but none have rivalled Burne-Jones in +appreciation of the artistic possibilities of the subject. His picture +on its appearance at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1884 set the seal on his +reputation, and put an end to whatever doubts remained then in the +public mind as to his right to serious consideration. It is in many ways +the finest of all his works, the most ambitious and the most exacting in +the technical problems presented, and it is certainly the most notable +in accomplishment.] + +This point needs to be elaborated for the sake of clearing up any +misapprehensions which might arise from his more or less erratic way of +exhibiting his work. As an example, when he exhibited for the first time +in 1864 in the gallery of the Royal Society of Painters in Water +Colours, he showed the "Fair Rosamond," painted in 1862, with the +"Annunciation" and "The Merciful Knight," both of which belong to 1863; +but in 1865 he sent "A Knight and a Lady," finished just before the +exhibition opened, "Green Summer," painted in 1863, and "The +Enchantments of Nimue," which was one of the things he produced in 1861 +while he was still frankly and unreservedly an imitator of Rossetti. +Such an inversion in the order in which his works were set before the +public might cause some perplexity to students of his art if they did +not realise what was his custom in this matter. + +He exhibited in the gallery of the Royal Water Colour Society in 1869 a +painting, "The Wine of Circe," which was not only the most important +work he had produced up to that time but is also to be counted as one of +the most admirable of all his performances; and he showed there in 1870 +two other notable works, "Love Disguised as Reason" and "Phyllis and +Demophoon." It was over this last painting that the dispute arose which +led to his resignation of his membership of the Society; and one of the +results of this dispute was that for a space of seven years hardly any +of his pictures were seen in public. Indeed, the only things he +exhibited during this period were a couple of water-colours, "The Garden +of the Hesperides" and "Love among the Ruins," which appeared at the +Dudley Gallery in 1873. Both were important additions to the list of his +achievements, and the "Love among the Ruins" especially was a painting +of exquisite beauty and significance. He repeated this subject in oil +some twenty years later, because the original water-colour had been +damaged somewhat seriously, and was not, as he considered, capable of +repair. + +The opening of the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877 gave him his first great +opportunity of setting before the mass of art lovers his claims to +special attention. Hitherto he had counted in the minds of a few men of +taste and sound judgment as an artist of remarkable gifts who promised +before long to take high rank in his profession, but by the larger +public interested in art matters he was practically undiscovered. That +he would have won his way step by step to the position he deserved +cannot be doubted; if there had been no break in his activity as an +exhibiting painter his successive contributions to the Royal Water +Colour Gallery could not have failed to make him widely known. But his +reappearance at the Grosvenor Gallery was so dramatic, and so convincing +in its proof of the amazing development of his powers, that he leaped +at one bound into the place among the greatest of his artistic +contemporaries, which he was able to hold for the rest of his life +without the possibility of dispute. + +For he had not been idle during this seven years of abstention from +exhibitions; the period had been rather one of strenuous activity and +unceasing production. It saw the completion of several important +canvases on which he had laboured long and earnestly, and it saw the +commencement of many others which were in later years to be added to the +list of his more memorable achievements. In some ways, indeed, it was a +fortunate break; it saved him from the need to strive year by year to +get pictures finished for specific exhibitions, and it allowed him time +for calm reflection about the schemes he desired to work out. It freed +him, too, from the temptation--one to which all artists are exposed--to +modify the character of his art so that his pictures might be +sufficiently effective in the incongruous atmosphere of the ordinary +public gallery. He was able to form his style and develop his +individuality in the manner he thought best; and then at last to come +before the public fully matured and with his æsthetic purpose absolutely +defined. + +When the first fruits of this long spell of assiduous effort were seen +at the Grosvenor Gallery, Burne-Jones became instantly a power in the +art world. The judgment of the few connoisseurs who had hailed "The +Wine of Circe" and "Love among the Ruins" as works of the utmost +significance, and as revelations of real genius, received wide +endorsement; and though some people who were out of sympathy with the +spirit of his art were quite ready to attack what they did not +understand, their voices were scarcely heard amid the general chorus of +approval. Indeed, for such pictures as "The Days of Creation," "The +Mirror of Venus," and "The Beguiling of Merlin," exhibited in 1877; +"Laus Veneris," "Chant d'Amour," and "Pan and Psyche," which with some +others were shown in 1878; the series of four subjects from the story of +"Pygmalion and the Image," and the magnificent "Annunciation," in 1879; +and that exquisite composition, "The Golden Stairs," which was his sole +contribution to the Grosvenor Gallery in 1880, nothing but enthusiastic +approval was to be expected from all sincere art lovers; to carp at work +so noble in conception and so personal in manner implied an entire want +of artistic discretion. + +There were two exhibitions at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1881. In the +summer one Burne-Jones was not represented, but the winter show included +a number of his studies and decorative drawings, among them the large +circular panel, "Dies Domini," a water-colour of rare beauty which can +be reckoned as one of the most admirable of his designs. In 1882, +however, he showed "The Mill," "The Tree of Forgiveness," "The Feast of +Peleus," and several smaller paintings; and in 1883 that splendid piece +of symbolism, "The Wheel of Fortune," and "The Hours." The following +year is memorable for the appearance of the important canvas, "King +Cophetua and the Beggar Maid," and the less ambitious but even more +fascinating "Wood Nymph," in both of which the artist touched quite his +highest level of achievement, and gave the most ample proof of the +maturity of his powers. + +[Illustration: PLATE VII.--DANAE (The Tower of Brass) + +(Glasgow Corporation Art Gallery) + +Like the "Sibylla Delphica" this canvas shows how Burne-Jones was +accustomed to treat subjects from the classic myths in the mediæval +spirit to which he inclined by habit and association. In his +illustration of a subject from the story of Danae, where she stands +watching in wonder the building of the tower of brass which was to be +her prison, he has looked at Greek tradition in a way that was partly +his own and partly a reflection of William Morris; but the result is +none the less persuasive because it does not conform to the Greek +convention.] + +His election as an Associate of the Royal Academy came in 1885. That he +coveted this particular distinction can scarcely be said; indeed, he was +at first unwilling to accept it, and it was only in response to a +personal request from Leighton that he finally decided to take his place +in the ranks of the Associates. But he exhibited a picture at Burlington +House in 1886, "The Depths of the Sea," and then, feeling that his work +was unsuited for the Academy galleries, he sent nothing else there, and +in 1893 resigned his Associateship. His contributions to the Grosvenor +Gallery in 1886 were "The Morning of the Resurrection," "Sibylla +Delphica," and "Flamma Vestalis"; and in 1887 "The Baleful Head," "The +Garden of Pan," and some other canvases. + +After this year he ceased to exhibit at the Grosvenor Gallery, as he was +one of the chief members of the group of artists who supported Mr. +Comyns Carr and Mr. C. E. Hallé in the founding of the New Gallery, and +he sent there nearly all the works he produced during the rest of his +life. The most important exceptions were the magnificent "Briar Rose" +series of pictures, which were shown in 1890 by Messrs. Agnew at their +gallery in Bond Street, and "The Bath of Venus," which went straight +from the artist's studio to the Glasgow Institute in 1888. + +The first exhibition at the New Gallery was opened in 1888, and it +included several of his oil-paintings, among them "The Tower of Brass," +an enlarged repetition of an earlier picture, and two canvases, "The +Rock of Doom" and "The Doom Fulfilled," from the "Story of Perseus" +series, to which also belonged "The Baleful Head," shown in the previous +year. To the succeeding shows there he sent much besides that can be +taken as representing his soundest convictions. There were the large +water-colour, "The Star of Bethlehem," and the "Sponsa di Libano," in +1891; "The Pilgrim at the Gate of Idleness" and "The Heart of the Rose" +in 1893; "Vespertina Quies" and the oil version of "Love among the +Ruins" in 1894; "The Wedding of Psyche" in 1895; "Aurora" and "The Dream +of Launcelot at the Chapel of the San Graal" in 1896; "The Pilgrim of +Love" in 1897; and "The Prioress' Tale" and "St. George" in 1898. In all +of these his consistent pursuit of definite ideals, his love of poetic +fantasy, and his admirable perception of the decorative possibilities of +the subjects he selected are as evident as in any of his earlier works; +as years went on he relaxed neither his steadfastness of purpose nor his +sincerity of method. To the last he remained unspoiled by success and +unaffected by the popularity which came to him in such ample measure--it +may be safely said that with his temperament and his artistic creed he +would have continued on the course he had marked out for himself even if +the effect of his persistence had been to rouse the bitterest opposition +of the public, and he was as little inclined to trade on his success as +he would have been to tout for attention if his efforts had been +ignored. + +There was no waning of his powers as his career drew towards its close. +It was not his fate to be compelled by failing vitality to be content +with achievements that lacked the force and freshness by which the work +of his vigorous maturity was distinguished, for he died before advancing +years had begun in any way to dull his faculties. Only a few weeks after +the opening of the 1898 exhibition at the New Gallery he was seized with +a sudden illness, which had a fatal termination on the morning of June +17. Really robust health he had never enjoyed, and on several occasions +serious breakdowns had hampered his activity; but his devotion to his +art was so sincere, and his determination so strong, that these +interruptions did not perceptibly affect the continuity of his work. +Towards the end of his life, however, he suffered from an affection of +the heart, and the demands which he made upon his strength helped, no +doubt, to exhaust his vitality. At the time of his death he was striving +to complete one of the most important and ambitious pictures he ever +planned--"Arthur in Avalon," a vast canvas which, even in its unfinished +condition, must be reckoned as an amazing performance, and worthy of a +distinguished place in the record of modern art. + +One of the most interesting things in the life-story of Edward +Burne-Jones is the manner of his advance, within some twenty years only, +from a position of obscurity to one of exceptional authority in the +British school. The young student, who in 1855 had just discovered his +vocation and was beginning to feel his way under the guidance of +Rossetti, had become in 1877 one of the most discussed of British +artists, and had with dramatic suddenness entered into the company of +the greatest of the nineteenth-century painters. With no effort on his +part to attract attention, without having recourse to any of those +devices by which in the ordinary way popularity is won, he secured, +practically at the first time of asking, all that other men have had to +strive for laboriously through a long period of probation. Although the +few things he exhibited while he was a member of the Royal Water Colour +Society were sufficient to rouse in the few real judges a deep +interest in his future achievement, it was the singular merit of his +contributions to the first exhibition at Grosvenor Gallery that made +him instantly famous. The wider public realised then, and realised most +forcibly, that he was an artist to be reckoned with, and that his work, +whether people liked it or not, could by no means be ignored. + +[Illustration: PLATE VIII.--THE ENCHANTMENTS OF NIMUE + +(South Kensington Museum) + +Painted, like the "Sidonia von Bork," while Burne-Jones was still under +the influence of Rossetti, "The Enchantments of Nimue" is interesting as +an example of his earliest methods. It was finished in 1861, but it was +not exhibited until 1865, when it was hung in the Gallery of the Royal +Society of Painters in Water Colours; it was bought for the South +Kensington Museum in 1896. The painting shows how Nimue "caused Merlin +to pass under a heaving-stone into a grave" by the power of her +enchantments.] + +From that time onwards there was for him no looking back. The twenty +years of preparation, which were spent mainly in ceaseless seeking after +completer knowledge and in careful study of the practical details of his +profession, were followed by another twenty years of strenuous +production, in which he worked out more and more effectively the ideas +formed in his extraordinarily active mind. In the series of his +paintings there is a very perceptible advance year by year in technical +facility, but to suggest that they show also a growth of imaginative +power would scarcely be correct, because there seems to have been no +moment in his career when he did not possess in fullest measure the +faculty of poetic invention and the capacity to put his mental images +into an exquisite and persuasive shape. What he acquired as a result of +his exhaustive study was a closer agreement between mind and hand, the +skill to convey to others what he himself felt. But he had no need to +labour to make his intelligence more keen or his fancies more varied; +nature had endowed him with a temperament perfectly adapted for every +demand which he could make upon it in the pursuit of his art. + +That he did not at first secure the unanimous approval of art lovers is +scarcely surprising. The markedly individual artist who cares nothing +for popular favour and is more anxious to satisfy his own conscience +than to gather round him possible clients is never likely to become a +favourite offhand. Burne-Jones by the brilliancy of his ability silenced +all opposition long before his death, and gained over the bulk of the +doubters who questioned his right to the admiration he received when he +first began to exhibit at the Grosvenor Gallery. But for some while the +unusual character of his art caused it to be much misunderstood by +people who had not taken the trouble to analyse his intentions. He was +accused of affectation, of deliberate imitation of the early Italians; +he was attacked for his indifference to realism and for his decorative +preferences. Even the genuineness of his poetic feeling was suspected, +and his love of symbolism was ridiculed as the aberration of a warped +mind. Much of this misconception was cleared away by the collected +exhibition of his works which was held at the New Gallery in the winter +of 1892-1893, for this show, by bringing together the best of his +productions and by summing up all phases of his practice, proved +emphatically that he had been as sincere and logical in his aims as he +had been consistent in his expression. It was no longer possible to +attack him out of mere prejudice; the verdict given fifteen years before +on his art by those who understood him best was seen to be just. When a +second collection was shown at the New Gallery--a memorial exhibition +arranged in 1898, a few months after his death--few people remained who +were prepared to dispute his mastery. + +It is fortunate that justice should have been done to him by his +contemporaries and that there should have been really so little delay in +the wider acknowledgment of his claims. If appreciation had been +withheld from him while he lived, if it had been his fate to secure only +a posthumous reputation, there would have been some diminution of his +influence, and his art would have lost some of its authority. But as a +right estimate of his position was arrived at during his lifetime, when +he was at the height of his activity as an exponent of an exceptionally +intelligent æsthetic creed, he was able to make his beliefs effective in +bringing about the conversion of a large section of the public to a +truer understanding of the value of decorative qualities in pictorial +art. He proved emphatically that decoration does not imply, as is +popularly supposed, the abandonment of the characteristics which make a +picture interesting; he showed that a subject can be legitimately +treated so that it engages fully the sympathies of the average man, and +yet can be kept from any descent into obviousness or commonplace +conventionality. The painted story in his hands was no trivial anecdote; +it was a motive by means of which he conveyed not only moral lessons but +artistic truths as well, something didactically valuable but at the same +time capable of appealing to the senses with exquisite daintiness and +charm. + +Indeed, he can best be summed up as a teacher who clothed the lessons of +life with noble beauty and with dignity that was commanding without +being forbidding. There was human sympathy in everything he painted--a +tender, gentle sentiment which escaped entirely the taint of +sentimentality and which, tinged as it always was with a kind of quiet +sadness, never became morbid or unwholesome. He was too truly a poet to +dwell upon the ugly side of existence, just as he was too sincerely a +decorator to insist unnecessarily upon common realities. That he +searched deeply into facts is made clear by the mass of preparatory work +he produced to guide him in his paintings, by the enormous array of +drawings and studies which he executed to satisfy the demand he made +upon himself for exactness and accuracy in the building up of his +designs. But in his studies, as in his pictures, the intention to +express a personal feeling is never absent. He selected, modified, +re-arranged as his temperament suggested; he omitted unimportant things +and amplified those which were of dominant interest; he sought for what +was helpful to his artistic purpose and passed by what would have seemed +in wrong relation, consistently keeping in view the lesson which he +desired to teach. It can be frankly admitted that a certain mannerism +resulted from his way of working, but this mannerism was by no means the +dull formality into which many artists descend when they substitute a +convention for inspiration; it was rather a revelation of his +personality and of that belief in the rightness of his own judgment +which counts for so much in the development of the really strong man. +Except for the short time in which he was influenced by Rossetti, his +life was spent in illustrating an entirely independent view of artistic +responsibilities; and it would be difficult now to question this +independence with the wonderful series of his paintings available to +prove how earnestly and how seriously he strove to realise his ideals in +art. + + + The plates are printed by BEMROSE & SONS, LTD., Derby and London + The text at the BALLANTYNE PRESS, Edinburgh + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41583 *** |