DOI Heft:
No. 38 (May, 1896)
DOI Artikel:Studies by Sir Edward Burne-Jones
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17296#0215
Studies by Sir E. Burne-Jones
building up and perfecting of his pictures ; but of which he has been the sole occupant. He has
they have besides a particular significance as avoided most of the experiences which fall to the
expressions of the view which he takes of Nature, lot of the student of art. His growth has been
His sense of reality, his acceptance of facts, and fostered in ways that are unusual, and his career
his individuality of selection, all of which con- has been in many respects peculiar. He began to
tribute to make consis- study art systematically
tently personal the man-____ at an age when most
ner of his paintings, are
seen in his sketches in
their simplest and least
conventionalised form.
The splendid assertion
of his pictures is gained
by the sacrifice of many
of the qualities which
make for realism, and,
though we are quite
willing to accept his pic-
torial convention for the
sake of its admirable
power and extraordinary
individual beauty, we are
none the less anxious to
see with what sort of
spirit he devotes himself
to studying the finest
idioms of the language
from which he makes his
translations. It is in-
structive to note with
what turns of phrase
and with what poetic
perversions he clothes
the ideas which he col-
lects from the great
original upon which he
bases his own epics; it
is important to refer
back his results to their
first causes and to trace
young painters are at-
tempting to produce;
and he began at a period
when there was abroad
in the art world a curious
unrest that inclined those
workers who troubled
themselves with theories
about what was right
and wrong in artistic
motives towards a cer-
tain romantic medieval-
ism. The love of anec-
dotic art and the fashion
for spurious classicism
against which the Pre-
Raphaelite Brotherhood
was formed to protest
disgusted the thinkers
who desired pictures
that would express some-
thing worthier of pic-
torial record than the
sordid emotions of
everyday people. The
influence of Rossetti
was at the time thrown
into the romantic scale
against the squalid
school of uninspired
reproducers, and it was
intelligible enough that
a young man fresh from
the growth of his per- a course of university
formance from its start- study, and conscious ot
ing-point in observation • aesthetic aspirations after
of fundamental details forms of expression that
which are no more ex- study for figure in "the wheel of would Sive him SC0Pe
clusively at his disposal fortune" by sir e. burne-jones for intellectual invention
than they are at that of and original practice,
every sincere worker in art. And this reference should fall under the spell of the enchantment which
back to first beginnings is the more essentially this extraordinary artist exercised over the painters
important in the case of Sir Edward Burne- who were associated with him. To this influence
Jones, because the history of his art life is, in a is beyond doubt to be ascribed the formation ol
sense, a peculiar one and unlike that which it those convictions about the scope and purpose of
is possible to write of any other artist of the painting which are bearing fruit in the present-day
present day. From the first he has taken a place work of Sir Edward Burne-Jones. He was not at
200
building up and perfecting of his pictures ; but of which he has been the sole occupant. He has
they have besides a particular significance as avoided most of the experiences which fall to the
expressions of the view which he takes of Nature, lot of the student of art. His growth has been
His sense of reality, his acceptance of facts, and fostered in ways that are unusual, and his career
his individuality of selection, all of which con- has been in many respects peculiar. He began to
tribute to make consis- study art systematically
tently personal the man-____ at an age when most
ner of his paintings, are
seen in his sketches in
their simplest and least
conventionalised form.
The splendid assertion
of his pictures is gained
by the sacrifice of many
of the qualities which
make for realism, and,
though we are quite
willing to accept his pic-
torial convention for the
sake of its admirable
power and extraordinary
individual beauty, we are
none the less anxious to
see with what sort of
spirit he devotes himself
to studying the finest
idioms of the language
from which he makes his
translations. It is in-
structive to note with
what turns of phrase
and with what poetic
perversions he clothes
the ideas which he col-
lects from the great
original upon which he
bases his own epics; it
is important to refer
back his results to their
first causes and to trace
young painters are at-
tempting to produce;
and he began at a period
when there was abroad
in the art world a curious
unrest that inclined those
workers who troubled
themselves with theories
about what was right
and wrong in artistic
motives towards a cer-
tain romantic medieval-
ism. The love of anec-
dotic art and the fashion
for spurious classicism
against which the Pre-
Raphaelite Brotherhood
was formed to protest
disgusted the thinkers
who desired pictures
that would express some-
thing worthier of pic-
torial record than the
sordid emotions of
everyday people. The
influence of Rossetti
was at the time thrown
into the romantic scale
against the squalid
school of uninspired
reproducers, and it was
intelligible enough that
a young man fresh from
the growth of his per- a course of university
formance from its start- study, and conscious ot
ing-point in observation • aesthetic aspirations after
of fundamental details forms of expression that
which are no more ex- study for figure in "the wheel of would Sive him SC0Pe
clusively at his disposal fortune" by sir e. burne-jones for intellectual invention
than they are at that of and original practice,
every sincere worker in art. And this reference should fall under the spell of the enchantment which
back to first beginnings is the more essentially this extraordinary artist exercised over the painters
important in the case of Sir Edward Burne- who were associated with him. To this influence
Jones, because the history of his art life is, in a is beyond doubt to be ascribed the formation ol
sense, a peculiar one and unlike that which it those convictions about the scope and purpose of
is possible to write of any other artist of the painting which are bearing fruit in the present-day
present day. From the first he has taken a place work of Sir Edward Burne-Jones. He was not at
200