See me

A slightly belated tribute to Georgiana Burne-Jones, who was born on 21 July, 1840. 

Georgiana (née Macdonald), Lady Burne-Jones (1840-1920) was the wife and later, biographer, of eminent Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic Movement painter, Sir Edward Burne-Jones.  

A promising artist herself, Georgiana Burne-Jones began art classes at the Government School of Design in South Kensington and later became a student of Ford Maddox Brown. 

For some time, she continued to draw, embroider and sew costumes to be utilised in artists' paintings. 

In 1861, she was employed as a tile painter for the decorative arts firm Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., but after the birth of her son, Philip, in October of the same year, became a full-time caregiver.

On the lot of women artists, Georgiana Burne-Jones 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'. 

Pictured: See me, 2023, acrylic on canvas panel, 10 x 10 cm. The face decoration is based on a detail from the embroidered table cover Australia, c 1888, designed by May Morris, the younger daughter of Georgiana Burne-Jones’s close friend and confidante, William Morris.