Burne-Jones

Alfred Lys BaldryProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 51K words
Chapters: 6

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Burne-Jones by A. L. BaldryAuthor: Baldry, A. L. (Alfred Lys), 1858-1939,Language: English, Class: ND: Fine Arts: Painting, Release Date: Dec 9, 2012

Editor's review

This book is Alfred Lys Baldry's systematic appraisal of Burne-Jones, a leading figure of the later Pre-Raphaelite movement in Britain, and stands as an early document of art criticism. Unlike an ordinary picture album that merely lists works, it traces Burne-Jones's creative development from the perspective of a contemporary, discussing the links between his decorative compositions, dreamlike colour and medieval subjects, in the elegant prose characteristic of early twentieth-century art writing. For today's reader its value lies not only in understanding the painter himself but also in observing how an age understood and shaped him: critical discourse is itself part of art history. The analyses of individual works help readers build their own viewing clues and are well suited to reading alongside reproductions of Burne-Jones's paintings, or as an introduction to nineteenth-century British artistic currents. Note that this is an English-language public-domain original whose arguments bear the limitations of its time and should not be taken as current scholarly consensus.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General art lovers interested in the Pre-Raphaelites and nineteenth-century British painting
Art history students wishing to understand the style of early art criticism
Readers seeking English public-domain art texts for reading practice
Creators who want background on the works before an exhibition or a copying session

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting high-resolution plates or a complete catalogue of works
Researchers seeking contemporary scholarship and the latest findings
Beginners who find English difficult and need a Chinese translation

Reading tips

Begin with images of Burne-Jones's representative paintings, then read the corresponding commentary to pair text with image.
Treat the book's judgments as historical documents; note evaluative statements and compare them with other sources.
Read one chapter at a time, taking notes on the author's key descriptive terms and references to works.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a picture album with many illustrations?

Not in the modern sense. It is an early work of art criticism, mainly textual; the sources do not indicate that it includes many plates. If you want images, prepare reproductions or exhibition materials to read alongside it.

How difficult is the original English?

It is early twentieth-century art criticism, with long sentences and elegant diction, harder than general introductory works. Readers with university-level English can work through it with a dictionary, or read selected key chapters.

Can the book's views be used directly as a basis for research?

They should not be cited as settled conclusions. It is a contemporary critical document reflecting the aesthetics and discourse of its time, with period limitations. It is best used as one research source alongside modern scholarship.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Alfred Lys Baldry Author · British (English) · 1858–1939

Alfred Lys Baldry (1858–1939) was a British art critic and painter. Born in Torquay, Devon, he studied at the University of Oxford and the Royal Academy Schools, and was a pupil of the painter Albert Moore, whose biography he later wrote. Baldry contributed art criticism to periodicals for many years. Three of his works are held in this collection, including Millais, Leighton and Burne-Jones, and he also wrote Three Great Modern Painters: Leighton, Burne-Jones and Whistler. His writing focuses on Victorian British painters and has contributed notably to the study of Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic art. His criticism combines close analysis of works with accounts of painters' lives, making it a useful reference for understanding nineteenth-century British painting.