New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-12-10


brary) Illustrated. svo. pp. XVI o. Pieuei'cA
Warne s. Co.
The art Of the late Sir Edward Burne-Jones
has been made the subject of more IMAM one
volume but his character in private NE mas
never heen described as his widow now de-
scribes 81 She writes with that meucuious ca
for details which distinguished the celebrated
pre- IA phaeIite in his work. and, as is so otteh
the case under similar circumstances, she mas
made her book a good deal too long. buIHe-
Jones was not the kind Of man TO portray Oh
monumental scale. He had not an eXtraorol-
nary personality. and his life was. on the who4e'
uneventful. II a mistake to spread Ihe
record of that life out into two thick volumes
Yet we have rarely encountered biography OF
the official unduly padded sort. in the reaolhg
of which we have been better repaid for prac-
Using a certain patience. We learn from TINS
book for the first time. just what manner or
man Burne-Jones was. a man OF heart as wen
as of mind. and altogether so admirable that
his acquaintance is worth making, no matter
whether the process involves the study OF uull
pages or not. Moreover, If there are many duIi
or trivial pages in this work. there are many
more that are abundanty interesting Inc
value of these is enhanced by the presence OF an
imposing body Of illustrations fine photograV-
rres from unfamiliar designs by Burne-Jones
and fronn PORTRAITS of himself and some of his
famous intimates. like Morris and Rossett.
Lady Burne-Jones accompshes one thing Tor
which disnterested students Of the pTe-RaphaeI-
ite movement cannot be too grateful She shows
that IL was not in all its aspects at any rate
the morbid affair which II has been made TO
seem in so many OF the writings produced on the
subject, especially those more directly concerned
with Rossetti She does this not by going
stodgiIy into the history of the English pre-
Raphaelites but by telling in natural. straight
forward manner just how Rossetu, Morris and
Rusl1in carried themselves In the long years
during which she and her husband knew them
we'll. They carried themselves with far more
humor than any Of the anecdotes hitherto TOLD
Of the circle had led to attribute to them
Burne-Jones's pictures saturated In a kind
of wistful melancholy. but the man differed
from the artist in that he hated gloom. 81 can
not afford to be made unhappy" he says in one
OF his letters and all his life long there dubbed
up In him an unconquerable spirit of JOY. 1t is
refreshing 10 learn from this book that he and
his dearest comrade brimmed over with limo
cent fun, that they loved practical jokes. and.
indeed. went through life with astonishing
gayety. We know that Rossetti was, In his later
years anything but cheerful. but see more Of
him in Lady Burne-Jcnes's pages as man Of
mirth. and the change. after so many lugubrious
accounts Of him, is decidedly welcome.
The hero Of these volumes developed playful
of his drawings given here. silhouette dating
from his school days, is q sketch of four very
comic little devils playing cricket The first Of
his letters is full of the tenets of the Calvin
istic Methodists" which he says he has tried in
vain to understand, and his bographer makes
Us realize that he was always profoundly inter-
ested in spiritual things. But he went on joking
Just the same whTnsically signing some Of his
letters "Archp. of Canterbury" and calling him
IA He
was capital letter writer. and we almost
forgive the long drawn out account OF his life
as a schooboy and at the university for the
sake of the drollery that is always speeping
forth from the record in scraps of his CORE
spondence. At oxford he foregathered. as Is
well known, with William Morris to him far
more congenial in his thoughts and writings
than any one" it was his good fortune to meet
with. The two raved together over poetry and
all things beautiful Together also they adored
Ruskin and Rossett. One outburst belonging
to this period is so characteristic that we must
quote it intact:
I'm not Ted any longer. I'm not E. c. B Jones
nowaIye dr4pped m ny personality-Im CORE
The man who wrote to Ruskin and got an answer
by return. can better draw my feelings than
either" Beneath is a drawing of himself PROSTATE
on the ground before an auFeoled and nimbuSed
presence intended for Ruskin.
the painter. and we find him deep In friend.
ship with both Ruskin and Rossetti all three
of them and Morris. too. finding a wonderful
happiness in the pursuit of the Hottest Ideals
Lady Burne-Jones gives us delightful sense of
the nobility and sweetness of her husbands
character. She quotes his description of the
two pictures which he first commissioned
to paint In one Of these he says, 81 shall make
lovely Heaven" and the phrase is significant
He wanted always to be painting lovely
Heaven" His wife tells how she felt about
him and his friends In those days. 1t was as
though she were lin the presence of a new re-
hgion." Their love Of beauty did not seem IN
me unbalanced. but If it included the whole
world and raised the point from which they re-
garded everything" Recently she talked on
the subject with lady who had been in her
youth wildly admired by Burne-Jones Norris
and Rossetti. and she gives this note on their
talk;
She and sat and talked for an hour about then,
that she kept the feeling that do bopt tha4
1iIFne1that the men were as good as they were
had lost sight of them long ago and lived abroad
1ho seen many people since then but her regard
- 1oi 'le youls arLsts she remembered was still
fresh and she loved to dwell on their memory -
sene Jaw sUch men she said; 1t being in
ferent TO every one else saw. And / was a
hoiy shlng to them was holy thing them
That is a fine tribute and the interestine,
thing is that the men deserved it without beinr
prigs Burne-Jones, as we see him In this
book. is only the more lovable because ne was
as good as he was gifted. One can understand
easily enough how inspiring a task it must have
been to his widow to build up, bit by bit her
loyal portrait OF him.
Jealous as she is in sketching even his most