Sir Edward Burne-Jones

Sir Edward Burne-Jones, professional name of Edward Coley Jones (1833-1898), English painter, designer, and illustrator. He was born in Birmingham and educated at Oxford University. 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 dream-like 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 produced by Morris's Kelmscott Press, notably Chaucer (1896). Burne-Jones was knighted in 1894.