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'.
More on Georgiana Burne-Jones: Pre-Raphaelite Sisters exhibition catalogue in our Shops | The Pre-Raphaelite Circle book in our Shops
Watch a film clip on the sitter from the BBC Archive in the Media section below
Sir Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris with their families
by Frederick Hollyer
albumen cabinet card, 1874
NPG x131265
Sir Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris with their families
by Frederick Hollyer
albumen cabinet card, 1874
NPG x131266
The Burne-Jones and Morris families
by Frederick Hollyer
sepia-toned platinotype print, 1874
NPG x11881
Georgiana (née Macdonald), Lady Burne-Jones
by Frederick Hollyer
platinotype cabinet card, circa 1882
NPG x4907
Georgiana (née Macdonald), Lady Burne-Jones
by Frederick Hollyer
platinotype cabinet card, circa 1882
NPG x4906
Georgiana (née Macdonald), Lady Burne-Jones; Clare Mackail
by Sir Emery Walker
whole-plate glass negative, circa 1900
NPG x19622
Georgiana (née Macdonald), Lady Burne-Jones; Clare Mackail
by Sir Emery Walker
whole-plate glass negative, circa 1900
NPG x19623
Georgiana (née Macdonald), Lady Burne-Jones; Clare Mackail
by Sir Emery Walker
whole-plate glass negative, circa 1900
NPG x19624
Georgiana (née Macdonald), Lady Burne-Jones; Clare Mackail
by Sir Emery Walker
bromide contact print, circa 1900
NPG x200785
Related People
- Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Bt (husband)
- Alice Kipling (née Macdonald) (sister)
- (Joseph) Rudyard Kipling (nephew)
- Margaret Mackail (née Burne-Jones) (daughter)
- Sir Philip Burne-Jones, 2nd Bt (son)
- Angela Margaret Thirkell (née Mackail) (granddaughter)
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Recommended Exhibitions & displays
- Pre-Raphaelite Sisters
From 17 October