Philip Burne-Jones

Philip drawn by his father. January 12, 1878

Philip Burne-Jones

The Vampire (1896)

Sir Philip Burne-Jones, 2nd Baronet (born October 1, 1861 in London , † June 21, 1926 there ) was a British painter and illustrator ; he was known for his landscapes , portraits and magical-poetic fantasy paintings with Pre-Raphaelite influence.

life and work

Philip Burne-Jones was the only son of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones (1833–1898) and his wife Georgiana, née Macdonald (1840–1920). Philip trained at Marlborough College , an exclusive private school , and studied for two years without a degree at the University of Oxford . In order to comfort his parents about the abandoned studies, he finally took painting lessons in London. In 1898 he inherited the title of baronet , of Rottingdean in the County of Sussex, from his father, who had been awarded it four years earlier. Initially, Burne-Jones increasingly adopted a comic-like style and drew caricatures , but at the insistence of his father turned to "more serious" painting. Philip Burne-Jones was valued for his high level of artistry and soon exhibited in the most prestigious galleries in London and Paris , but he was always overshadowed by his better-known father and was often compared to him as a protégé . His most common works are portraits of prominent Britons, so u. a. by Edward Elgar , Henry James , Charles Eliot Norton or by his father and his uncle Rudyard Kipling in the National Portrait Gallery in London .

The best-known and most fateful painting by Philip Burne-Jones, however, was "The Vampire" , which he exhibited on April 24, 1896 together with some of his father's works in the National Gallery in London and which sparked a heated controversy: It was claimed it represented that "Vengeful portrait" of Mrs. Patrick Campbell , a London stage star at the turn of the century, who "defeated" a 35-year-old artist - allegedly George Bernard Shaw , who was a theater critic in London at the time - in a rush of love. The picture shows a gloomy beautiful woman who triumphantly bends over her unconscious male victim with a malicious smile. "The Vampire" would forever haunt Philip Burne-Jones in art reviews.

In 1902 Burne-Jones visited the United States , where he became a welcome guest of New England high society . At an event at Harvard University , he met then- US President Theodore Roosevelt . Back in London he recorded the impressions of his trip to the USA in the illustrated book "Dollars and Democracy" (1904). A year later he wrote the travelogue “With Amy in Brittany” (1905), sketched with loose pencil and pen drawings , which describes his impressions of a road trip through Brittany . Little is known of Burne-Jones' later years; Disappointed by the lack of recognition of his work and his person, Burne-Jones increasingly withdrew from the public and exhibited less and less. The artist was quickly forgotten, only occasionally created caricatures for his remaining friends and died alone in 1926 at the age of only 64 in London, where he had spent most of his life.

reception

Despite his virtuosity and innovative, sometimes magical-fantastic style, Philip Burne-Jones never managed to distinguish himself as an independent artist and to assert himself in such a way that he could break free from the overpowering shadow of his father. Burne-Jones was considered a shy and introverted man. Although he has exhibited many times and there is numerous, partly unpublished material about the painter and artist, his vita and his work history can only be found as marginalia in the literature on Edward Burne-Jones and the Pre-Raphaelites.

Philip Burne-Jones' niece, the writer Angela Thirkell (1890–1961) described him in her memoirs as a "very unhappy person":

“He could have been a distinguished painter and would have been one under a luckier star, but two things told fatally against him. He never needed to work, and he was cursed with a sense of diffidence and a feeling that whatever he did would be contrasted unfavorable with his father's work […] If he had had to depend upon himself and had worked in his own way, I do not believe that what he feared would have happened. "

“He could have been a remarkable painter, and would have become one if it had happened under a happier star, but two things spoke out fatally against him: He never had to work and was under the curse of his own reluctance and the feeling that everything he did could always be compared unfavorably with the work of his father [...] if he had relied more on himself and had gone his own way, I believe, what he feared would not have happened. "

Works

The National Portrait Gallery in London owns three portraits by Sir Philip Burne-Jones:

• Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1898)
• Rudyard Kipling (1899)
• Sir Edward John Poynter (1909)

gallery

• 

  The Village Church, Rottingdean (1891)

• 

  The Visitor (around 1893)

• 

  Rudyard Kipling (1899)

• 

  After the Bath (1908)

• 

  Irene Spencer (1912)

Individual references and sources

1. ↑ Lady Georgiana Burne-Jones , from the National Portrait Gallery London website, accessed May 19, 2017.
2. ↑ biography of Tim McGee (English)
3. ↑ Angela Thirkell: Three Houses . Oxford University Press, London 1931

Web links

Commons : Philip Burne-Jones  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Photograph of the Burne-Jones family with the Morris family
• Sir Philip Burne-Jones (English)
• The Victorian Web - Sir Philip Burne-Jones (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Edward Burne-Jones	Baronet, of Rottingdean 1898-1926	Title expired