Georgiana (née Macdonald), Lady Burne-Jones
(1840-1920), Wife and biographer of Sir Edward Burne-Jones, 1st BtSitter in 9 portraits
Age 15, Burne-Jones began art classes at the Government School of Design and later became a student of Ford Maddox Brown. She met Edward Burne-Jones through her brother and became his model and wife. She continued to draw, embroider and stitch costumes for use in artists' pictures. Her husband's infatuation with model Maria Zambaco meant the studio became out of bounds and she was demoted housekeeper and accountant. After his death she wrote the two-volume Memorials of Sir Edward-Burne Jones, chronicling the Pre-Raphaelite movement. On the sacrifice women artists made she wrote 'It is pathetic to think how we women longed to keep pace with men, and how gladly they kept us by them until their pace quickened and we had to fall behind'.
Related People
- Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Bt (husband)
- Sir Philip Burne-Jones, 2nd Bt (son)
- Alice Kipling (née Macdonald) (sister)
- (Joseph) Rudyard Kipling (nephew)
- Clare Mackail (granddaughter)
- Margaret Mackail (née Burne-Jones) (daughter)
- Angela Margaret Thirkell (née Mackail) (granddaughter)
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