The Last Pre-Raphaelite

Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination

Fiona MacCarthy

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN:
  9780571275793
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Artist Monographs

Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, this is the biography of celebrated nineteenth-century artist Edward Burne-Jones, who - with William Morris - connects Victorian and modern art.

'A triumph of biographical art.' Independent
'Magnificent.' Guardian
'Rarely are biographies both as authoritative and engaging as this.' Literary Review

The angels on our Christmas cards, the stained glass in our churches, the great paintings in our galleries - Edward Burne-Jones's work is all around us. The most admired British artist of his generation, he was a leading figure with Oscar Wilde in the aesthetic movement of the 1880s, inventing what became an iconic 'Burne-Jones look'. Widely recognised as the bridge between Victorian and modern art, he influenced not just his immediate circle but European artists such as Klimt and Picasso.

In this gripping book, award-winning biographer Fiona MacCarthy dramatically re-evaluates his art and life - his battle against vicious public hostility, the romantic susceptibility to female beauty that would inspire his work but ruin his marriage, his ill health and depressive sensibility, and the devastating rift with his great friend and collaborator, William Morris, when their views on art and politics diverged.

Blending new research with a fresh historical perspective, The Last Pre-Raphaelite tells the extraordinary story of Burne-Jones: a radical artist, landmark of Victorian society - and peculiarly captivating man.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Illustrations
• The Burne-Jones Macdonald Family Tree
• Preface
• ONE : Birmingham 1833–52
• TWO : Oxford 1853–5
• THREE : Northern France 1855
• FOUR : Early London 1856–7
• FIVE : Little Holland House 1858
• SIX : First Italian Journey 1859
• SEVEN : Russell Place 1860–2
• EIGHT : Second Italian Journey 1862
• NINE : Great Russell Street 1862–4
• TEN : Kensington Square 1865–7
• ELEVEN : The Grange, One 1868–71
• TWELVE : Third Italian Journey 1871
• THIRTEEN : The Grange, Two 1872
• FOURTEEN : Fourth Italian Journey 1873
• FIFTEEN : The Grange, Three 1874–6
• SIXTEEN : The Grosvenor Gallery 1877–80
• SEVENTEEN : Rottingdean, One 1881–2
• EIGHTEEN : The Grange, Four 1883
• NINETEEN : The Grange, Five 1884
• TWENTY : Rome 1885
• TWENTY-ONE : The Royal Academy 1885–7
• TWENTY-TWO : Rottingdean, Two 1888–9
• TWENTY-THREE : Mells 1890–3
• TWENTY-FOUR : Kelmscott, One 1894–5
• TWENTY-FIVE : Kelmscott, Two 1895–6
• TWENTY-SIX : Avalon 1897–8
• TWENTY-SEVEN : Memorials 1898–1916
• EPILOGUE : The Return of King Arthur 2008
• Sources and References
• Acknowledgements
• Index
• Colour Plates
• Black-and-White Plates
• About the Author
• By the Same Author
• Copyright