"Cupid's Hunting Fields," Edward Burne-Jones, 1880.

Burne-Jones (1883-98) started off as a Pre-Raphaelite, very much under the sway of founder Dante Gabriel Rossetti, but soon developed his own style, and by the 1870s had been hailed as a guiding star of the new Aesthetic movement, although his feet were planted in both camps. (There was a lot of overlap!)

He worked with designer William Morris, designing tiles, jewelry, mosaics, and tapestries, among other things, and became such an artistic powerhouse that he was made a Baronet...something that revolted Morris, a socialist, as well as Mrs. Burne-Jones, herself a socialist as well. Only Burne-Jones' son, who would inherit the title, seemed excited by it.

This is one of several works on the same theme of a blindfolded Cupid firing his arrows into the world, creating love unexpectedly and randomly. It's on a wood panel, with a relief built up in gesso, and painted over with oils and gold paint. Very impressive!

From the Delaware Museum of Art, Wilmington.

#Art #EdwardBurneJones #PreRaphaelites #AestheticMovement #Cupid #Gold

"Mrs. Eaton," Dante Gabriel Rossetti, c. 1863-5.

Rossetti (1828-82) was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and was busy as a poet, painter, illustrator, muralist, and translator. He hardly requires introduction; as a painter, he was hugely influential and much copied, even today, and has been the subject of biographies and even a TV series, "Desperate Romantics." He wasn't always the nicest guy, but he was fascinating and talented.

Fanny Eaton (1835-1924) was a mixed-race domestic worker, born in Jamaica, who was a favorite model of Rossetti and his friends. Married and with a family, she seems to have avoided any tawdry entanglements with the Brotherhood, who led rather steamy lives. Why she took up modeling and what she thought of the work that used her is unknown; she left no letters or diaries, but it is thought she modeled simply for the money.

The last known painting of her is from 1867; she seems to have stopped modeling after that, and lived out her life afterwards as a seamstress and cook.

From the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford, CA.

#Art #DanteGabrielRossetti #PreRaphaelites #FannyEaton #Portrait #PortraitMonday #WomenInArt

"The Rose Bower," Edward Burne-Jones, 1890.

Burne-Jones (1833-98) was a great British painter as well as being a designer of tiles, jewelry, mosaics, and stained-glass windows. Although heavily influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, he was considered a star of the Aesthetic movement as well, and modern fans regard him as having a foot in both camps.

Aestheticism believed that art should be simply an object of beauty, rather than preaching a lesson or telling a story. Pre-Raphaelites were all about bringing back intense detail and colors that existed in Renaissance art, which the Aesthetes loved, but they could be preachy and didactic in their art. (See Hunt's painting "The Awakening Conscience" which today is seen as almost comical.) Burne-Jones and his friend William Morris believed in creating beautiful objects, but also in bringing beauty to everyday items like wallpaper and woodwork.

This is part of a series called "The Legend of Briar Rose" which we know as Sleeping Beauty. Here we have the princess sleeping with her attendants in her castle...while the roses continue to creep in. It's one of a number of paintings depicting the inhabitants of the castle asleep while the roses grow around them.

From Buscot Park, Oxfordshire, UK.

#Art #PreRaphaelites #EdwardBurneJones #SleepingBeauty #WomenInArt

“With stillness that is almost Paradise.
Darkness more clear than noonday holdeth her,
Silence more musical than any song;”
- Christina Rossetti, 1862

#christinaRossetti #preraphaelites #books #poems #elegy

The creation of a new piece of work unfolds in ways most people never imagine. It’s the act of conjuring something from nothing. My Picture, Mystery, is a struggle and triumph on paper.

My work is inspired by the Pre-Raphaelites and the artists of the fin de siècle. Give me a follow if you live these styles.
https://salvadorcastio.com/the-evolution-of-mystery/
#preraphaelites #traditionalartist #penandink #drawing #art

In the summer of 2022, I experienced a fundamental change. Reading The Radical Vision of Edward Burne-Jones finally gave me the clarity and purpose I had been searching for. Inspired by Andrea Wolk Rager’s brilliant reevaluation of Burne-Jones’s oeuvre, I made the decision I had delayed for years: to fully embrace the Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic that had enthralled me for years.

Read about my journey in my series, Beauty and Vision. The third and final part is now available. You can read it hear: https://salvadorcastio.com/vision-and-beauty-part-3/
#artist #art #PreRaphaelites #drawing #penandink #blog