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Georgiana Burne-Jones
Georgiana, Lady Burne-Jones (née MacDonald; 21 July 1840 – 2 February 1920) was a British painter and engraver, and the second oldest of the MacDonald sisters. She was married to the Late Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones, and was also the mother of painter Philip Burne-Jones, aunt of novelist Rudyard Kipling and Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, confidante and friend of George Eliot, William Morris, and John Ruskin. She was a Trustee of the South London Gallery and was elected to the parish Council of Rottingdean, near Brighton in Sussex.
She is known for the biography of her husband, The Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones and for publishing his Flower Book. She became the mother-in-law of John William Mackail, who married her daughter Margaret. Their children were the novelists Angela Thirkell, Denis Mackail and Clare Mackail.
Georgiana, always called "Georgie", was born in Birmingham on 21 July 1840, one of eight surviving children born to the Reverend George Browne Macdonald (1805–1868), a Methodist minister, and his second wife Hannah Macdonald, née Jones (1809–1875).
The Macdonald family moved frequently since the usual time in each of George's postings was three years, returning to Birmingham in September 1850, where Georgiana's elder brother Harry attended King Edward's School. Through him Georgiana and her sisters were introduced to a group of students who would become known as the Birmingham Set or "Pembroke Set" at the University of Oxford, most of whom were from Birmingham or had studied at King Edward's. Among them was the young Edward Burne-Jones (then plain Edward or Ned Jones). Edward went up to Exeter College, Oxford, to study theology. There he met William Morris as a consequence of a mutual interest in poetry. The two Exeter undergraduates formed a very close and intimate society, which they called "The Brotherhood", with other members of the Birmingham set. The members of the Brotherhood read John Ruskin and Tennyson, visited churches, and worshipped the Middle Ages. At that time neither Burne-Jones nor Morris knew Dante Gabriel Rossetti personally, but both were much influenced by his works, and met him by recruiting him as a contributor to their Oxford and Cambridge Magazine which Morris founded in 1856 to promote their ideas. Under Rossetti's influence both Burne-Jones and Morris decided to become artists, and Burne-Jones left college before taking a degree to pursue a career in art.
Georgiana moved to London with her family in 1853, following the death of her sister Carrie from tuberculosis; first to Sloane Square, and then to 33 Walpole Street. The family then moved to 17 Beaumont Street in Marylebone, in August 1856. After a brief family relocation to Manchester, Georgiana moved on her marriage into Russell Street in 1860.
Through her friendship with, and eventual engagement to Edward, at age 15 in June 1856, she was able to visit the studio where he worked with Rossetti and Morris. She was also introduced to John Ruskin. She said, "I wish it were possible to explain the impression made upon me as a young girl whose experience so far had been quite remote from art, by sudden and close intercourse with those to whom it was the breath of life... I felt in the presence of a new religion."
The artist Ford Madox Brown and his wife Emma invited Georgiana to an extended stay at their London home in April, 1860, so that she could spend time with Edward, and the two were married two months later.
Georgiana and Edward married in Manchester on 9 June 1860. Georgiana was 19, and Edward 27. They had been engaged for four years to the day. Between them they had £30 and a deal table containing her engraving tools, but "Light-hearted indifference, however, to many things generally regarded as essential lent boldness to domestic arrangements, and I remember thinking it quite natural that in the middle of the morning I should ask our only maid – a pretty one – to stand for me that I may try to draw her; to which she, being good tempered as well as pretty, cheerfully consented."
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Georgiana Burne-Jones
Georgiana, Lady Burne-Jones (née MacDonald; 21 July 1840 – 2 February 1920) was a British painter and engraver, and the second oldest of the MacDonald sisters. She was married to the Late Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones, and was also the mother of painter Philip Burne-Jones, aunt of novelist Rudyard Kipling and Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, confidante and friend of George Eliot, William Morris, and John Ruskin. She was a Trustee of the South London Gallery and was elected to the parish Council of Rottingdean, near Brighton in Sussex.
She is known for the biography of her husband, The Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones and for publishing his Flower Book. She became the mother-in-law of John William Mackail, who married her daughter Margaret. Their children were the novelists Angela Thirkell, Denis Mackail and Clare Mackail.
Georgiana, always called "Georgie", was born in Birmingham on 21 July 1840, one of eight surviving children born to the Reverend George Browne Macdonald (1805–1868), a Methodist minister, and his second wife Hannah Macdonald, née Jones (1809–1875).
The Macdonald family moved frequently since the usual time in each of George's postings was three years, returning to Birmingham in September 1850, where Georgiana's elder brother Harry attended King Edward's School. Through him Georgiana and her sisters were introduced to a group of students who would become known as the Birmingham Set or "Pembroke Set" at the University of Oxford, most of whom were from Birmingham or had studied at King Edward's. Among them was the young Edward Burne-Jones (then plain Edward or Ned Jones). Edward went up to Exeter College, Oxford, to study theology. There he met William Morris as a consequence of a mutual interest in poetry. The two Exeter undergraduates formed a very close and intimate society, which they called "The Brotherhood", with other members of the Birmingham set. The members of the Brotherhood read John Ruskin and Tennyson, visited churches, and worshipped the Middle Ages. At that time neither Burne-Jones nor Morris knew Dante Gabriel Rossetti personally, but both were much influenced by his works, and met him by recruiting him as a contributor to their Oxford and Cambridge Magazine which Morris founded in 1856 to promote their ideas. Under Rossetti's influence both Burne-Jones and Morris decided to become artists, and Burne-Jones left college before taking a degree to pursue a career in art.
Georgiana moved to London with her family in 1853, following the death of her sister Carrie from tuberculosis; first to Sloane Square, and then to 33 Walpole Street. The family then moved to 17 Beaumont Street in Marylebone, in August 1856. After a brief family relocation to Manchester, Georgiana moved on her marriage into Russell Street in 1860.
Through her friendship with, and eventual engagement to Edward, at age 15 in June 1856, she was able to visit the studio where he worked with Rossetti and Morris. She was also introduced to John Ruskin. She said, "I wish it were possible to explain the impression made upon me as a young girl whose experience so far had been quite remote from art, by sudden and close intercourse with those to whom it was the breath of life... I felt in the presence of a new religion."
The artist Ford Madox Brown and his wife Emma invited Georgiana to an extended stay at their London home in April, 1860, so that she could spend time with Edward, and the two were married two months later.
Georgiana and Edward married in Manchester on 9 June 1860. Georgiana was 19, and Edward 27. They had been engaged for four years to the day. Between them they had £30 and a deal table containing her engraving tools, but "Light-hearted indifference, however, to many things generally regarded as essential lent boldness to domestic arrangements, and I remember thinking it quite natural that in the middle of the morning I should ask our only maid – a pretty one – to stand for me that I may try to draw her; to which she, being good tempered as well as pretty, cheerfully consented."
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