| Description | Edward Burne-Jones's correspondence with Agnes Graham (Dame Agnes Jekyll) comprises eighty-three letters spanning eighteen years, between 1876 and 1894. The album also includes a letter to Agnes Graham's father William, an important early patron of Burne-Jones's, as well as a letter to Herbert Jekyll, whom Agnes married in 1881. Burne-Jones enjoyed illustrating his letters with amusing drawings or self-caricatures, and this album includes about twenty of these, as well as three loose sheets of pencil sketches, all containing single female figures, two of them verging on caricature. The album also includes a contemporary press cutting and a bookplate for Agnes.
Agnes Graham was the younger of William Graham's six children. She was the sister of Frances Graham (1854-1940, later Mrs John Francis Fortescue Horner), with whom Burne-Jones, despite the age difference, developed an amorous friendship. Burne-Jones's letters to Agnes, warm, affectionate and fatherly in tone, demonstrate the strong link he had with the Graham family. Most often addressed 'Dear Aggie' or 'Dear little Aggie', he signed his letters EBJ until 1892, and then 'Angelo', or 'A.'. Frances is naturally mentioned repeatedly in the album, but Burne-Jones also discusses his work, his daily life and activities, and presents his views on contemporary topics as well as seeking Agnes's. Famous contemporaries such as Ruskin and Rudyard Kipling, who was married to Burne-Jones's sister-in-law, are also mentioned ('… and o my dear heart do burn this letter the moment you have read it for I am shocked at what I have said.')
In the album, Burne-Jones comes across as a demanding friend, reproaching Agnes whenever her replies were deemed too tardy. Throughout his correspondence, through words or image, he portrays himself as a frail though hard-working artist ('I am leading a slave's life - working furiously all day long … I have nearly finished the three kings …', Good Friday 1892), plagued by various ailments.
The album of letters goes a long way to shining a light on the artist's personality, work and artistic milieu in the later part of the nineteenth century. The letters also mention famous contemporaries such as the critic John Ruskin, the poet, illustrator and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the writer Rudyard Kipling, the nephew of Burne-Jones's wife Georgiana.
Includes a folder containing the transcripts of the first 38 letters, completed by the auction house.
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| Administrative History | Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898), 1st Baronet, ARA (Royal Academy of Arts Academicians) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter.
Burne-Jones worked with William Morris as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co in the design of decorative arts. His early paintings show the influence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, but by 1870 he had developed his own style. In 1877, he exhibited eight oil paintings at the Grosvenor Gallery (a new rival to the Royal Academy). These included The Beguiling of Merlin. The timing was right and he was taken up as a herald and star of the new Aesthetic Movement. In the studio of Morris and Co. Burne-Jones worked as a designer of a wide range of crafts including ceramic tiles, jewellery, tapestries, and mosaics. Among his most significant and lasting designs are those for stained glass windows the production of which was a revived craft during the 19th century. His designs are still to be found in churches across the UK, with examples in the US and Australia.
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| Custodial History | By direct descent from Dame Agnes Jekyll (1961-1937, née Agnes Graham) |