Tim Batchelor
“Mantelpieces will soon be creaking under the weight of Christmas cards featuring the artwork of – or images inspired by – the pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones.
He produced this biblical scene at the beginning of his career, shortly after leaving his theology studies at Oxford University and deciding – along with his good friend, the artist and designer William Morris – to forego the priesthood for the life of an artist.
This is one of his first works in oil and is an extraordinary piece, not least for the fact that commissions for church altarpieces were rare in Victorian England.
There are echoes of his favourite Renaissance painters here with the use of gold paint and marvellous deep reds and greens that were built up in layers to give the impression of textured fabrics.
Burne-Jones painted himself into a corner – that’s him at the top right – and he also roped in friends as models. The next figure along is the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, another friend from Oxford, while Morris is in the middle, making an offering to the Christ child.
It is believed that Mary is Georgiana, an artist and accomplished musician whom Burne-Jones had recently married. She appears to fit the bill of the pre- Raphaelite fondness for creating idealised beauty tinged with sadness; she later stood by while Burne-Jones had a fling with a Greek model.
When looking at this work, it is easy to forget that when Burne-Jones made that courageous decision to change career, he had little or no idea about what being an artist involved.
He certainly didn’t know any artists and received none of the training an aspiring artist was expected to undergo; he did not study at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, did no detailed analysis of classical sculpture or antiquities and never spent any significant periods practising still-life drawing. He just jumped right in and learned as he went along.
This work recently underwent a significant transformation of its own. Dirt and heavy varnish had obscured it for years before a six-month conservation project at Tate, during which previously unknown details emerged.
We discovered, for example, that the child is holding an apple, the forbidden fruit redolent of temptation, which references Burne-Jones’s often-difficult relationships with women.
The restored painting is the first image that is displayed in this major exhibition – the artist’s first retrospective in London for more than 40 years – and it sets visitors up nicely for the well-known, large-scale masterpieces that follow. A Burne-Jones is not just for Christmas, after all.”
Interview by John Holt. Edward Burne-Jones is at Tate Britain, London, until 24 February 2019
“Mantelpieces will soon be creaking under the weight of Christmas cards featuring the artwork of – or images inspired by – the pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones.
He produced this biblical scene at the beginning of his career, shortly after leaving his theology studies at Oxford University and deciding – along with his good friend, the artist and designer William Morris – to forego the priesthood for the life of an artist.
This is one of his first works in oil and is an extraordinary piece, not least for the fact that commissions for church altarpieces were rare in Victorian England.
There are echoes of his favourite Renaissance painters here with the use of gold paint and marvellous deep reds and greens that were built up in layers to give the impression of textured fabrics.
Burne-Jones painted himself into a corner – that’s him at the top right – and he also roped in friends as models. The next figure along is the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, another friend from Oxford, while Morris is in the middle, making an offering to the Christ child.
It is believed that Mary is Georgiana, an artist and accomplished musician whom Burne-Jones had recently married. She appears to fit the bill of the pre- Raphaelite fondness for creating idealised beauty tinged with sadness; she later stood by while Burne-Jones had a fling with a Greek model.
When looking at this work, it is easy to forget that when Burne-Jones made that courageous decision to change career, he had little or no idea about what being an artist involved.
He certainly didn’t know any artists and received none of the training an aspiring artist was expected to undergo; he did not study at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, did no detailed analysis of classical sculpture or antiquities and never spent any significant periods practising still-life drawing. He just jumped right in and learned as he went along.
This work recently underwent a significant transformation of its own. Dirt and heavy varnish had obscured it for years before a six-month conservation project at Tate, during which previously unknown details emerged.
We discovered, for example, that the child is holding an apple, the forbidden fruit redolent of temptation, which references Burne-Jones’s often-difficult relationships with women.
The restored painting is the first image that is displayed in this major exhibition – the artist’s first retrospective in London for more than 40 years – and it sets visitors up nicely for the well-known, large-scale masterpieces that follow. A Burne-Jones is not just for Christmas, after all.”
Interview by John Holt. Edward Burne-Jones is at Tate Britain, London, until 24 February 2019
Tim Batchelor is an assistant curator at Tate Britain, London