Edward Burne-Jones' Magical World

The Beguiling of Merlin, 1874

Burne-Jones, on his art:  "I mean by a picture a beautiful, romantic dream of something that never was, never will be - in a light better than any light that ever shone - in a land no one can define or remember, only desire - and the forms divinely beautiful - and then I wake up"

Love among the ruins, 1894 

Phyllis and Demophoön, 1870

Head of Nimue, c. 1873

 Pan and Psyche, 1874

St. George and the Dragon, 1866-1893

 Sleeping Beauty, 1870-1890 

 Edward Burne-Jones (1833 - 1898) was the de facto equivalent of William Morris's freshman college roommate.  They met as teenagers at Oxford and remained close friends for their entire lives.  In 1998, on the 100th anniversary of Burne-Jones's death, a huge retrospective of his work was exhibited at the Musee d'Orsay, Paris.  I fell in love.