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BURN, RICHARD (1709-1785)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 850 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BURN, See also:RICHARD (1709-1785) , See also:English legal writer, was See also:born at Winton, See also:Westmorland, in 1709. Educated at See also:Queen's See also:College, See also:Oxford, he entered the See also:Church, and in 1736 became See also:vicar of See also:Orton in Westmorland. He was a See also:justice of the See also:peace for the counties of Westmorland and See also:Cumberland, and devoted himself to the study of See also:law. He was appointed See also:chancellor of the See also:diocese of See also:Carlisle in 1765, an See also:office which he held till his See also:death at Orton on the 12th of See also:November 1785. Burn's Justice of the Peace and See also:Parish Officer, first published in 1755, was for many years the See also:standard authority on the law See also:relating to justices of the peace. It has passed through innumerable See also:editions. His Ecclesiastical Law (176o), a See also:work of much See also:research,' was the See also:foundation upon which were built many See also:modern commentaries on ecclesiastical law. The best edition is that by R. See also:Phillimore (4 vols., 1842). mutually stimulated. Burne-See also:Jones resumed his See also:early love of See also:drawing and designing. With See also:Morris he read Modern Painters and the Morte d' See also:Arthur.

He studied the See also:

Italian pictures in the University galleries, and Diirer's engravings; but his keenest See also:enthusiasm was kindled by the sight of two See also:works by a living See also:man, See also:Rossetti. One of these was a woodcut in See also:Allingham's poems, " The Maids of Elfinmere "; the other was the See also:water-See also:colour " See also:Dante drawing an See also:Angel," then belonging to Mr Coombe, of the See also:Clarendon See also:Press, and now in the University collection. Having found his true vocation, Burne-Jones, like his friend Morris, determined to relinquish his thoughts of the Church and to become an artist. Rossetti, although not yet seen by him, was his chosen See also:master; and early in 1856 he had the happiness, in See also:London, of See also:meeting him. At See also:Easter he See also:left college without taking a degree. This was his own decision, not due (as often stated) to Rossetti's persuasion; but on settling in London, where Morris soon joined him at 17 Red See also:Lion Square, he began to work under Rossetti's friendly instruction and encouraging guidance. As Burne-Jones once said, he " found himself at five-andtwenty what he ought to have been at fifteen." He had had no See also:regular training as a draughtsman, and lacked the confidence of See also:science. But his extraordinary See also:faculty of invention as a designer was already ripening; his mind, See also:rich in knowledge of classical See also:story and See also:medieval See also:romance, teemed with pictorial subjects; and he set himself to See also:complete his equipment by resolute labour, witnessed by innumerable drawings. The works of this first See also:period are all more or less tinged by the See also:influence of Rossetti; but they are already differentiated from the See also:elder master's See also:style by their more facile though less intensely See also:felt elaboration of imaginative detail. Many are See also:pen-and-See also:ink drawings on vellum, exquisitely finished, of which the " Waxen See also:Image " is one of the earliest and best examples; it is dated 1856. Although subject, See also:medium and manner derive from Rossetti's See also:inspiration, it is not the See also:hand of a See also:pupil merely, but of a potential master. This was recognized by Rossetti himself, who before See also:long avowed that he had nothing more to See also:teach him.

Burne-Jones's first See also:

sketch in See also:oils See also:dates from this same See also:year, 1856; and during 1857 he made for Bradfield College the first of what was to be an immense See also:series of cartoons for stained See also:glass. In 1858 he decorated a See also:cabinet with the " Prioress's See also:Tale" from See also:Chaucer, his first See also:direct See also:illustration of the work of a poet whom he especially loved and who inspired him with endless subjects. Thus early, therefore, we see the artist busy in all the various See also:fields in which he was to labour. In the autumn of 1857 Bume-Jones joined in Rossetti's See also:ill-fated See also:scheme to decorate the walls of the Oxford See also:Union. None of the painters had mastered the technique of See also:fresco, and their pictures had begun to See also:peel from the walls before they were completed. In 1859 Burne-Jones made his first See also:journey to See also:Italy. He saw See also:Florence, See also:Pisa, See also:Siena, See also:Venice and other places, and appears to have found the See also:gentle and romantic Sienese more attractive than any other school. Rossetti's influence still persisted; and its impress is visible, more strongly perhaps than ever before, in the two water-See also:colours " Sidonia von Bork " and " See also:Clara von Bork," painted in 186o. These little masterpieces have a directness of See also:execution rare with the artist. In powerful characterization, combined with a decorative See also:motive, they See also:rival Rossetti at his best. In See also:June of this year Burne-Jones was married to See also:Miss Georgiana See also:Macdonald, two of whose sisters were the wives of See also:Sir E. See also:Poynter and Mr J.

L. See also:

Kipling, and they settled in Bloomsbury. Five years later he moved to See also:Kensington Square, and shortly afterwards to the See also:Grange, See also:Fulham, an old See also:house with a See also:garden, where he resided till his death. In 1862 the artist and his wife accompanied See also:Ruskin to Italy, visiting See also:Milan and Venice. In 1864 he was elected an See also:associate of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours, and exhibited, among other works, " The Merciful See also:Knight," the first picture which fully revealed his ripened See also:personality as an artist. The next six years saw a series of See also:fine water-colours at the same See also:gallery; but in 1870, owing . to a misunderstanding, Burne-Jones resigned his membershipof the society. He was re-elected in 1886. During the next seven years, 1870-1877, only two works of the painter's were exhibited. These were two water-colours, shown at the See also:Dudley Gallery in 1873, one of them being the beautiful " Love among the Ruins," destroyed twenty years later by a cleaner who supposed it to be an oil See also:painting, but afterwards reproduced in oils by the painter. This silent period was, however, one of unremitting See also:production. Hitherto Burne-Jones had worked almost entirely in water-colours. He now began a number of large pictures in oils, working at them in turn, and having always several on hand.

The " Briar See also:

Rose " series, "Laus Veneris," the " See also:Golden Stairs," the " See also:Pygmalion " series, and " The See also:Mirror of See also:Venus " are among the works planned and completed, or carried far towards completion, during these years. At last, in May 1877, the See also:day of recognition came, with the opening of the first See also:exhibition of the Grosvenor Gallery, when the " Days, of Creation," the " Beguiling of See also:Merlin," and the " Mirror of• Venus " were all shown. Burne-Jones followed up the See also:signal success of these pictures with " Laus Veneris," the " See also:Chant d'Amour," " See also:Pan and See also:Psyche," and other works, exhibited in 1878. Most of these pictures are painted in See also:gay and brilliant colours. A See also:change is noticeable next year, 1879, in the " See also:Annunciation" and in the four pictures called "Pygmalion and the Image "; the former of these, one of the simplest and most perfect of the artist's works, is subdued and sober; in the latter a scheme of soft and delicate tints was attempted, not with entire success. A similar See also:temperance of colours marks the " Golden Stairs," first exhibited in 1880. In 1884, following the almost sombre " See also:Wheel of See also:Fortune " of the preceding year, appeared " See also:King Cophetua and the See also:Beggar Maid," in which Burne-Jones once more indulged his love of gorgeous colour, refined by the period of self-See also:restraint. This masterpiece is now in the See also:National collection. He next turned to two important sets of pictures, " The Briar Rose " and " The Story of See also:Perseus," though these were not completed for some years to come. In 1886, having been elected A.R.A. the previous year, he exhibited (for the only See also:time) at the Royal See also:Academy " The Depths of the See also:Sea," a mermaid carrying down with her a youth whom she has unconsciously drowned in the impetuosity of her love. This picture adds to the habitual haunting See also:charm a tragic See also:irony of conception and a felicity of execution which give it a See also:place apart among Burne-Jones's works. He resigned his Associateship in 1893.

One of the " Perseus " series was exhibited in 1887, two more in 1888, with " The Brazen See also:

Tower," inspired by the same See also:legend. In 1890 the four pictures of " The Briar Rose " were exhibited by themselves, and won the widest admiration. The huge See also:tempera picture, " The See also:Star of See also:Bethlehem," painted for the See also:corporation of See also:Birmingham, was exhibited in 1891. A long illness for some time checked the painter's activity, which, when resumed, was much occupied with decorative schemes. An exhibition of his work was held at the New Gallery in the See also:winter of 1892-1893. To this period belong several of his comparatively few portraits. In 1894 Burne-Jones was made a See also:baronet Ill-See also:health again interrupted the progress of his works, See also:chief among which was the vast " Arthur in See also:Avalon." In 1898 he had an attack of See also:influenza, and had apparently recovered, when he was again taken suddenly ill, and died on the 17th of June. In the following winter a second exhibition of his works was held at the New Gallery, and an exhibition of his drawings (including some of the charmingly humorous sketches made for See also:children) at the See also:Burlington Fine Arts See also:Club. His son and successor in the baronetcy, Sir See also:Philip Burne-Jones (b. 1861), also became well known as an artist. The only daughter, See also:Margaret, married Mr J. W.

Mackail. Burne-Jones's influence has been exercised far less in painting than in the wide See also:

field of decorative See also:design. Here it has been enormous. His first designs for stained glass, 1857-1861, were made for Messrs See also:Powell, but after 1861 he worked exclusively for Morris & Co. Windows executed from his cartoons are to be found all over See also:England; others exist in churches abroad. For the See also:American Church in See also:Rome he designed a number of mosaics. Reliefs in See also:metal, tiles, See also:gesso-work, decorations for pianos and See also:organs, and cartoons for See also:tapestry represent his manifold activity. In all works, however, which were only designed and not carried out by him, a decided loss of delicacy is to be noted. The colouring of the tapestries (of which the " See also:Adoration of the Magi " at See also:Exeter College is the best-known) is more brilliant than successful. The range and fertility of Burne-Jones as a decorative inventor See also:calf be perhaps most conveniently studied in the sketch-See also:book, 1885–1895, which he bequeathed to the See also:British Museum. The artist's influence on book-illustration must also be recorded. In early years he made a few drawings on See also:wood for Dalziel's See also:Bible and for See also:Good Words; but his later work for the Kelmscott Press, founded by Morris in 1891, is that by which he is best remembered.

Besides several illustrations to other Kelmscott books, he made eighty-seven designs for the Chaucer of 1897. Burne-Jones's aim in See also:

art is best given in some of his own •words, written to a friend: " I mean by a picture a beautiful, romantic See also:dream of something that never was, never will be—in a See also:light better than any light that ever shone—in a See also:land no one can define or remember, only desire—and the forms divinely beautiful—and then I See also:wake up, with the waking of Brynhild." No artist was ever more true to his aim. Ideals resolutely pursued are See also:apt to provoke the resentment of the See also:world, and Burne-Jones encountered, endured and conquered an extraordinary amount of, angry See also:criticism. In so far as this was directed against the lack of See also:realism in his pictures, it was beside the point. The See also:earth, the See also:sky, the rocks, the trees, the men and See also:women of Burne-Jones are not those of this world; but they are themselves a world, consistent with itself, and having therefore its own reality. Charged with the beauty and with the strangeness of dreams, it has nothing of a dream's incoherence. Yet it is a dreamer always whose nature penetrates these works, a nature out of sympathy with struggle and strenuous See also:action. Burne-Jones's men and women are dreamers too. It was this which, more than anything else, estranged him from the See also:age into which he was born. But he had an inbred "revolt from fact" which would have estranged him from the actualities of any age. That criticism seems to be more justified which has found in him a lack of such victorious See also:energy and mastery over his materials as would have enabled him to carry out his conceptions in their See also:original intensity. Representing the same See also:kind of tendency as distinguished his See also:French contemporary, Puvis de Chavannes, he was far less in the See also:main current of art, and his position suffers accordingly.

Often compared with See also:

Botticelli, he had nothing of the See also:fire and vehemence of the Florentine. Yet, if aloof from strenuous action, Burne-Jones was singularly strenuous in production. His See also:industry was inexhaustible, and needed to be, if it was to keep See also:pace with the See also:constant pressure of his ideas. Invention, a very rare excellence, was his pre-eminent See also:gift. Whatever faults his paintings may have, they have always the fundamental virtue of design; they are always pictures. His fame might See also:rest on his purely decorative work. But his designs were informed with a mind of romantic See also:temper, apt in the See also:discovery of beautiful subjects, and impassioned with a delight in pure and variegated colour. These splendid gifts were directed in a See also:critical and fortunate moment by the See also:genius of Rossetti. Hence a career which shows little See also:waste or misdirection of See also:power, and, granted the aim proposed, a rare level of real success. AUT11oRIT1Es.–In 1904 was published Memorials of See also:Edward Burne-Jones, by his widow, two volumes of extreme See also:interest and charm. The Work of Burne-Jones, a collection of ninety-one photogravures, appeared in 1900. See also See also:Catalogue to Burlington Club Exhibition of Drawings by Burne-Jones, with Introduction by Cosmo See also:Monkhouse (1899; Sir E.

Burne-Jones: a See also:

Record and a See also:Review, by See also:Malcolm See also:Bell (1898); Sir E. Burne-Jones, his See also:Life and Work, by Julia See also:Cartwright (Mrs Ady) (1894); The Life of See also:William Morris, by J. W. Mackail (1899). (L.

End of Article: BURN, RICHARD (1709-1785)

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