FEATURE
ART THROUGH THE AGES
THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM By Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833–1898)
In 1885 the City of Birmingham opened its new Art Gallery. It was the result of years of hard campaigning and fundraising by the businessmen of Birmingham, who wanted to ‘bring art to the people’. At that point they gave a £2000 commission to Sir Edward BurneJones to paint a work to celebrate the creation of this important cultural addition to Birmingham’s rapidly developing city centre. Burne-Jones had been chosen as the artist because he was a Birmingham man – born in Bennett’s Hill and a pupil of King Edward’s School, then in New Street. He left Birmingham at the age of eighteen to go to Exeter College, Oxford to train for the clergy but he left without finishing his degree. Whilst at Exeter College he met William Morris. Although he disliked Birmingham, by 1885 Burne-Jones had become a very successful artist and accepted the commission. He had occasionally returned to the city to lecture at the Birmingham School of Art by then in Margaret Street, just across the road from 16
ARTEFACTS
WINTER 2021 • Issue 67
the Art gallery. Such was his fame and popularity that his visits were greeted with the crowds and hysteria only seen by pop stars and footballers today! Burne-Jones was a romantic and a follower of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, sharing their love of fine detail and the realistic portrayal of the subject matter. The vague outlines of the Impressionist School of painting being developed across the channel were definitely not for him! It is still disputed as to whether or not he can be included in the group of artists known as the PreRaphaelites. He loved everything mediaeval, especially works such as Morte D’Arthur and frequently used those tales in the tapestries he designed along with William Morris, which were woven in Morris’ Merton factory.
