Tuesday 2 December 2008New book reveals “hidden” artistic vision of leading Pre-Raphaelite painter

Hidden Burne-Jones: Works on Paper by Edward Burne-Jones from Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery draws on the internationally important collection of over 1,100 drawings, watercolours, sketches, stained glass cartoons, prints and archive material by Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) held at the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery. This unique collection is significant for two important reasons: firstly it reveals Burne-Jones’s reliance on, and commitment to, draughtsmanship throughout his career, and secondly it shows the impact of drawing on his artistic development and technique.

The volume includes essays by John Christian, Elisa Korb and Tessa Sidey, which place these selected unfamiliar drawings and other works on paper within the context of Burne-Jones’s more famous major works, and which in turn have assured him a leading place in the second generation of Pre-Raphaelite artists. Leading expert on the work of Burne-Jones and Victorian Art , John Christian, considers the hard won commitment of the drawing in such works as the Fairy Family (1857), The Annunciation (1857-61) Study for an Idyll and An Idyll (1862), and Drapery Study of Lucretia for Chaucer’s ‘Legend of Good Women’ (1863). Lacking academic art training it was the influential friendships with William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, as well as classical art and the paintings of the Old Masters, which helped shape his ideas.

Burne-Jones was fascinated by the female form, depicting it throughout his career, preferably drawing from live models. In her essay Models, Muses and Burne-Jones’s Continuous Quest for the Ideal Female Face, Elisa Korb studies Burne-Jones’s approach to the live model, his portrayal of the female form, and the development of the nude figure over the course of his career. Little-known works like Female Nude: Three Studies (1865-66), Two Nude Female Studies for ‘The Lament’, (1865), Lucretia (1867) and Composition Studies for ‘Charity’ (1867) are discussed.

Burne-Jones’s relationship with the City of Birmingham and its role in forging his career is also studied. As a native of Birmingham, Burne-Jones spent the first twenty years of his life there, attending King Edward VI School where his early talent for drawing was first noticed. In her essay, Public Patronage: The Burne-Jones Collection in Birmingham, Tessa Sidey reveals the often uneasy relationship with his native city, as well as the key roles played the benefactors, J.R. Holliday and Charles Fairfax Murray, in helping to develop the extraordinary depth and range of the Burne-Jones collection in Birmingham.

The volume illustrates 63 selected drawings and works on paper, which appear throughout the essays and the main exhibition presentation, nearly 30 of which are reproduced in colour. Each work is accompanied by full specifications, provenance, inscriptions and an extended caption. Elisa Korb, a postgraduate doctoral student at the University of Birmingham, has also documented all the works on paper by Burne-Jones in the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery collection, and this volume includes a complete catalogue listing of all 1,137 drawings, watercolours, prints and archive material held at Birmingham. This forms the basis of the new on-line Burne-Jones Resource Site.

Dr Paul Spencer-Longhurst, Senior Curator of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts comments that this “very attractive and well-illustrated publication…fittingly celebrates Birmingham’s most famous artistic son by an updated reference catalogue of all his drawings, watercolors, prints and archive material” held at the prime repository of his work, by “embodying mature insight, new research, modern methodology and hands-on experience in a highly effective synthesis”.

The Authors:
John Christian is a leading expert on the work of Burne-Jones and the Pre-Raphaelite movement. He is co-author of Edward Burne-Jones: Victorian Artist Dreamer (US 1998), editor of and a contributor to The Last Romantics: The Romantic Tradition of British Art, Burne-Jones to Stanley Spencer (US 1998) and co-author of Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England (US 1995). Tessa Sidey, who died in January 2010, was the curator of Prints and Drawings at Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, and co-author of John Everett Millais: Illustrator and Narrator (US 2004) Elisa Korb is a postgraduate doctoral student at the University of Birmingham, who has documented the Burne-Jones works on paper collection at the Museums and Art Gallery.

HIDDEN BURNE-JONES
Works on Paper by Edward Burne-Jones from Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

96 pages, 8 3/8” x 10 3/8” (265 x 215mm)
26 colour and 37 black-and-white illustrations, paperback
Text: Up to 53,000 words
ISBN: 978 1 904832 30 0 (13 digit)
ISBN: 1 904832 30 X (10 digit)

Price: US$32.50/UK£17.00
Publication date: April, 2007
Publisher: D. Giles Limited, London

Distributed in the UK and Rest of World (excluding US and Canada) by
ACC
Sandy Lane
Old Martlesham
Woodbridge
Suffolk
IP12 4SD
UK
T: +44 (0)1394 389950
F: +44 (0)1394 389999

Distributed in the US and Canada by
ACC Distribution,
6 West 18th Street
Fourth Floor
New York, NY 10011
Toll-free orders: +1 800-252-5231
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

For Further Information and Review Copies:
In the UK contact:
Liz Japes
E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

In the USA contact: Karen Lunstead, Marketing Manager
E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

For Illustrations and Interviews:
BMAG 0121 303 4514 for media enquiries only