Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue

William Burges (1827-1881), Architect and designer

By other artists
Posthumous portrait
Photographs

By other artistsback to top


1858
Painting on panel by Edward John Poynter, on Yatman Cabinet (designed by Burges), inside cupboard door, signed, inscr. and dated, head-and-shoulders, profile to left, wearing spectacles; V&A, London, 217:1,2-1961. Cabinet exh. Architectural Exh., London, 1858; International Exh., London, 1862; and The Strange Genius of William Burges, NM Wales, Cardiff and V&A, London, 1981 (B1, but portrait not visible).[1]

1875
Pencil drawing by E.W. Godwin, dated '25 June 1875', head-and-shoulders, profile to right; V&A, London, E.236-1963:59, Godwin sketchbook. Repr. Soros 1999, p.22.

publ. 1881
Drawing by Theodore Blake Wirgman, after NPG P552 (see below) with pose reversed; untraced. Repr. Graphic, 7 May 1881, p.456; Architectural Review, vol.170, July 1981, p.8; Crook 1981, p.36, fig.2.

Posthumous portraitback to top


c.1881
Caricature drawing by Edward Burne-Jones, whole-length in bed, inscr. ‘the late Wm Burges’; Cecil Higgins AG, Bedford, P723. Repr. Christian 2011, p.57

Photographsback to top


1860s
Albumen print by unidentified photographer; see NPG P231.

c.1880
‘Potts, photograph, c.1880, RIBA’ (Crook 2004); untraced.

c.1878–81
Photographs by Henry Van der Weyde, head-and-shoulders, with spectacles, three known poses:
(a) see NPG P552 and NPG x127701.
(b) head-and-shoulders to right, almost full face. Wood engr. after Van der Weyde photograph repr. ILN, 30 Apr. 1881, p.429; see print in Hope Coll., Ashmolean M., Oxford, HP 43446.
(c) carte-de-visite, head tilted to left; RIBA, 2431-4 (as by Bedford Lemere & Co.).[2] Repr. Journal of the RIBA, 2 June 1934, p.728; see also cutting, NM, Cardiff, 1473 Portraits LIV.
Pose (c) is the primary image of Burges.


Footnotes
1) This is the only painted portrait of Burges. Crook (2004) attributes the portrait to the architect Ambrose Poynter.
2) Bedford Lemere & Co (1865–1957) were specialist providers of architectural and industrial images from the 1880s.

Carol Blackett-Ord