Burne-Jones, SIR EDWARD, was born at Birmingham, of Welsh descent, 28th August 1833. He was destined for the church, and educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where William Morris, the poet, was his friend; but his thoughts turned strongly to art; and having, about 1857, submitted some pen-drawings to Rossetti, whose work had powerfully influenced him, he received from this artist encouragement and guidance in his first attempts as a painter. His subjects were always poetical and imaginative. From the first he was a fascinating colourist, and his earlier works, as 'The Merciful Knight' (1864), 'Merlin and Vivien,' the figures of the two heroines of Meinhold's Sidonia and 'The Wine of Circe' (1867), along with much medieval quaintness both in form and feeling, possess great expressional intensity. They attain, in water-colour, greater brilliancy and purity of hue than is usual even in works executed in oil, and are sometimes, as in 'Love among the Ruins' (1873), on such an extended scale as we usually associate with the more dignified medium. About 1870 he began to be known as an oil-painter, and his works of this period are inspired by the earlier art of the Italian Renaissance, and show more of grace and less of emphasis than his former paintings in body-colour. Among his pictures are, 'The Days of Creation,' 'The Beguiling of Merlin,' and 'The Mirror of Venus' (1877); 'Laus Veneris' (painted 1873-75), 'Le Chant d'Amour' and 'Pan and Psyche' (1878); 'The Golden Stairs' (1880); 'The Tree of Forgiveness' (1882); 'The Wheel of Fortune' (1883); 'King Cophetua' (1884); 'Andromeda Chained,' 'The Fight with the Sea-beast,' and 'The Brazen Tower' (1888); and the 'Legend of the Briar Rose' pictures (four, 1890). He became D.C.L. in 1881, A.R.A. in 1885 (resigned 1893), and a baronet in 1894. Several of his latest works show a realism and a thoroughness of draftsmanship and modelling in his treatment of the nude unknown in his former productions; but his colouring tended on the whole to become less splendid. He furnished many striking designs for stained glass—as for Christ Church, Oxford. In 1898 'Love and the Pilgrim' sold for 5000 guineas. He died 17th June 1898.
See monograph by Malcolm Bell (1892); the illustrated Art Annual for 1894, by Julia Cartwright; and the authoritative biography by his son-in-law, J. W. Mackail (1900).