Sir Philip William Burne-Jones, 2nd Baronet (1 October 1861 – 21 June 1926) was the first child of the British
Pre-Raphaelite
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...
artist Sir
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman Hun ...
and his wife
Georgiana Macdonald. He became a well-known
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
in his own right, producing more than 60 paintings, including
portraits
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...
,
landscapes
A landscape is the visible features of an area of Terrestrial ecoregion, land, its landforms, and how they integrate with Nature, natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionar ...
, and poetic fantasies.
Life and career
He was born in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in 1861 and was educated at
Marlborough College
Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. Founded in 1843 for the sons of Church ...
. He attended
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
for two years, but quit. To appease his parents for this failure, he agreed to take lessons in painting in London.
Philip did study painting seriously. His skill was great and he exhibited his work in well-known galleries in London and Paris. The
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
exhibited his work eleven times between 1898 and 1918, and his work was also shown in the
Paris Salon
The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...
of 1900. There he exhibited his portrait of his father, now in the
National Portrait Gallery. He painted portraits of many well-known persons of the time.
His most famous work, ''
The Vampire'' (1897), depicting a woman leaning over an unconscious man, was believed to have been modelled by the actress
Mrs Patrick Campbell
Beatrice Rose Stella Tanner (9 February 1865 – 9 April 1940), better known by her stage name Mrs Patrick Campbell or Mrs Pat, was an English stage actress, best known for appearing in plays by Shakespeare, Shaw and Barrie. She also toured th ...
, with whom Burne-Jones had been associated romantically. The painting also inspired his cousin
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
's poem of the same name. The location of the original painting is unknown. In July 1902 several papers including the Baltimore Sun and the St. Louis Republic reported the painting was sold to
W.K. Vanderbilt; however, Burne-Jones denied the reports.
Having a famous father was difficult for him, and it was Philip's fate in life that his work was often compared unfavourably with that of his father.
Upon his father's death in 1898, Philip succeeded to the title of
baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
that had been bestowed on his father during 1894. It is said that his father had accepted the title only because Philip was keen to inherit it.
Philip visited the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
during 1902, where he was popular in fashionable society and contributed to the then-fashionable travelogue literary genre by publishing an account (Dollars and Democracy) of his time spent there. He lived most of his life in London, where he died in 1926.
Racial views
Philip expressed racist remarks on Black Americans in his 1904 American travelogue "Dollars and Democracy." Frankly confessing that he does not think highly of African Americans and is skeptical of their belonging in American society, Philip wrote that "among a highly civilized and strenuous people the negroes are in an absolutely false position," "the negro is not, and can never be, the equal of his white brother," and considering "exceptions here and there, the best that can be said for them
frican Americansis that they make tolerably good servants." Burne-Jones did make allowances for the possibility of his racist opinions on this matter being wrong, asking at the end of his anti-black diatribe if "I've been very unfair in what I've just said?"
References
External links
* Burne-Jones, Philip (1902
''Catalogue of Works'' Exhibited at M. Knoedler & Co., 355 Fifth Avenue, NYC, from 17 March 1902 to 29 March 1902, ''via:''
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
, included ''Vampire''.
* Burne-Jones, Philip (1904
''Dollars and democracy'' memoir about 1902 US travels, ''via:''
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
*
Philip Burne-Jones exhibition catalog*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burne-Jones, Philip
1861 births
1926 deaths
Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
People educated at Marlborough College
19th-century English painters
English male painters
20th-century English painters
Painters from London
Burne-Jones family
20th-century English male artists
19th-century English male artists