"Something you love, something you're interested in, something you've never heard of"
Day One - Edward Burne-Jones
"It's not a case of false modesty if I say I'm appalling at art, and much to the relief of my teachers, I dropped the subject at school as soon as I could.
But like a lot of people, I enjoy going to art galleries and collections, even if I know little about what I'm seeing. So I'm pleased when this event on Victorian artist Burne Jones is today's random choice, and I'm hoping it will give me an insight into his art.
It certainly does - the talk's well prepared and features masses of images of his paintings and famous stained glass, as well as more intimate cartoons. But what I wasn't expecting was such an insight into the art of biography writing from author Fiona MacCarthy; the six years that went in to the making of this book, the travels across Britain, Italy and 40 different churches and the grateful admission that, "I never wished I was doing a different subject: that's the worst thing that can happen to a biographer after two years of research!"
It turns out there's more to interest me in this talk than I might have first expected - Burne Jones was at the centre of social and intellectual life of the Victorian period, and counted Henry James and Oscar Wilde amongst his friends and was uncle by marriage to both Stanley Baldwin and Rudyard Kipling. The insights into his private life provoke a hum of gentle laughter across the hall, and the identification of his muse and lover in some of his most famous works certainly adds a new dimension.
The talk ends on the promise that no one is far from a stained glass window of Burne Jones' (a quick google search reveals there's one in Cheltenham's All Saints church) and I'll certainly appreciate the next one I see."
Laura Brand
Membership Scheme Manager
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