New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-02-18
MR.. BURNE-JONE
WHY HE HAS BEEN MADE A BARONET-
HIS CAREER AND HIS PLACE IN
THE ART-WORLD.
London. February s.

London February 6.
"Sir Edward Burne-Jones. Bart, ex-A. r. A.
altogether ar odd way Of designating an emf
nent artist. now in his sixty-ilrst year. 1t be-
comes the more odd when you consider who and
what Sir Edward is. and what his career has
been. There are more reasons than one why
people are surprised by his acceptance OF ms
title; and surprised also by the oner OF i.
Who offered it? query those who like to know
the inside history of things Mr. GLADSTONE!
His interest in art has never been supposed 10
be very deep. his acquaintance very wac
with any art but the accepted and conventional
forms Of It, Perhaps no one of his colleagues Is
widely known as a connoisseur Of painting, or
even as a lover of it, unless perhaps Lord Rose
berry and his interest is largely historical. SIT
William Harcourt Mr.. John Morley, Lord Spen-
GER Mr.. Fowler Of Wolverhampton, LORD Kim
berley-which Of these estmable gentlemen is
the patron of MIR Burne-Jones? II Is pernlSs'-
bic still 10 call him Mr.. Burne-Jones. unui the
completion of the ceremonies which make MN a
ful-hedged Baronet. his older and simpler name
is the true one. Indeed, if he have an eminent
natron-a word which he would reject-in poll
ties it is no member of the Gladstonian CABINET
or Of the Gladstonian party. Il is Mr.. Arthur
Bafour. now the possessor OF the lover! it4ar
Rose series Of pictures and Mr. Arthur Balfour.
Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition. can hardly
he supposed TO have much influence in the coun-
sells of the party he seadfastly opposes. Nor
IAN Lord Wharncffe, who the fine King
Cophetua.
If however you consider another side OF the
matter the puzzle becomes perhaps signify
less puzzlng Mir Burne-JOnes, though NOT a
politician, has strong political sentiments and
feelings: possibly even convictions. lie IS
Home Ruler; ne is one of those Radicals whose
Radicalism Is first cousin TO Socialism, or 10
that form of 1t which now and then, IN minds
not very much accustomed to afalrs' springs
from sympathy with suffering and from a feel
ing that large classes of men and women have
a hard life in this world Amiable persons of
that stamp often seem ready to catch at any
political nostrum which promises remedy for
such state of things Mr.. Burne-Jones is the
near and intimate friend of men whose names
are much more widely known in the world of
affairs than his own and of or two who
have an almost sinister celebrity by reason of
their ill-considered enthusiasm for some very
doubtful causes: Mr. William Morris, for one.
Does that throw any light on the present APP
pointment? cannot say. and don't know that
1t much matters.
What matters is that on personal grounds
and on art grounds Mr. Burne-Jones deserves
all the honor that has been bestowed on him.
il may not be quite the kind of honor one would
have liked to him receive Mr. Watts
declined it when the same was offered to him;
not | think, for the first time. Yet Mr.. Watts
is less remote from the merely conventional than
Mr. Burne-Jones is. Mr.. Watts, to begin with,
Is an r. A.. and has been in full communion
with that great company of painters-a word
which includes, for academcal purposes. both
those who can paint and those who cannot-for
twenty-six years. He has recognized the State
as having concern with art by the gift, rather
by the promised bequest, Of Of the finest col
1ections in existence of modern pictures; con-
siderable part of the work Of his own life; the
money value of which would be expressed in
large figures His house and studio in Holland
Park have long been the resort Of the cultivated
and. to some extent, of the fashionable world
His portrait painting has brought him into
latons with many men eminent in public-that
Is in political well as literary or ecclesiastical
life. He has painted fair women and brave
men, He has never lost sight Of the public
body to whom in the long run he was RESPONSE
BILE artist.
Hardly any of these things are true OF Mr.
Burne-Jones. His whole life has been a
protest. He has stood aloof from the world
He has looked to and TO body Of men
as teacher leade'. To Rossetti. perhaps,
in some degree, for inspiration or for sugges
ton. but he is a painter 50 immensely superior
to Rossetu that 1t seems absurd to conceive
of him as standing, for any purpose. to Rossetti
In the attitude of a pupil. Rossetu was a man
Of highly poetica nature who turned to art
medium of expression for certain poccal
conceptions for which he did not think verse
best suited. But he never took the trouble
master the technique Of painting Wha, people
value in Rossetus pictures is not the beauty of
their execution. but the beauty and originality
of the thought he has tried TO transfer to cam
vas. Never once perhaps. the effort
complete success; and perhaps never entire
failure.
Far otherwise was Mr. Burne-Jones's theory
Of art. He began by learning the alphabet and
the grammar OF 1t. He became a consummate
draughtsman. He studied design as a science
and his mastery over il Is no, less complete
than that OF a great chemist over the science
of chemistry. He born colorist; albeit he
often INDUCES in schemes Of color which
fantastic just as he draws human figures which,
TO the eye untutored in his peculiar methods,
seem unduly elongated. But If these be errors
they not the errors of ignorance. they
wful and II is not to be doubted that. from his
own point of view. they are defensible. Every
mans stock of courage. however. is limited,
and never heard Of anybody who ventured to
ask Mr.. Burne-Jones why he sometimes chose
10 create his seven feet high. why
the living flesh should assume the livid hue OF
the corpse. ! hardly dare to hint that II IS so.
even in this private and confidential way When
such things are said--at least now-they are
said In whispers. Aforetime they used TO be
nounced in all the brutality OF print
There was a long period during which Mr..
Burne-Jones to the Gentle only another
name for foolishness He misunderstood.
neglected, rdiculed. by all but few Before
the earlier days of the extinct Grosvenor
Gallery. he hardly known. to the very
elect. by which mean that holy band who love
art for arts sake and not for fashions sake, or
as topic Of conversation at difficult dinners,
or as a livelihood TO the artist and a fortune to
the dealer. Now and then he burst on the world