The Pre-Raphaelites go North

“Edward Burne-Jones: Prerafaeliterna och Norden” is both a book and an exhibition catalogue, the exhibition in question being an ongoing one at Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, an art museum in Stockholm named after Eugen Napoleon Nikolaus, a Swedish prince and painter. The catalogue is bilingual, with the English pieces in the back and with smaller print. While Prince Eugen did meet the famous British artist Edward Burne-Jones, the connection between the latter and Sweden seems almost non-existent, making a huge portion of the book deal with the Arts and Crafts movement around William Morris instead (Morris was, of course, a friend and associate of Burne-Jones).

Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) was a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and a student of its founder, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The Pre-Raphaelites aimed to revolutionize British artistic life with their Renaissance and medievalist retro style of painting. Many of their works showed a mysterious red-haired lady (actually Jane Morris, the wife of William Morris) who has become almost iconic. Burne-Jones seems to have embodied the contradictions of the 19^th century counter-culture almost to a t, being inspired by the High Church Oxford Movement while having contacts with utopian socialist William Morris, who in turn was inspired by national romanticism in both high medieval and Norse forms. Despite his “old fashioned” and mysterious style of painting, Burne-Jones´ artistic ideal was actually intensely democratic. Art should be popular and available to all. The decorative arts should be elevated to the same high level as fine pictorial arts. Apart from painting, Burne-Jones worked with relief sculpture, designing for stained glass, tapestry, embroidery, mosaic, ceramic, book illustrations and jewelry – a conscious way to break with the idea that some art forms were “higher” and some “lower”. Apart from being a Pre-Raphaelite painter, Edward Burne-Jones was an Arts and Crafts pioneer and a forerunner of international Symbolism.

As already indicated, Burne-Jones wasn´t really interested in the Nordic countries and their traditions, being more keen on Italy and Chaucer. Only a few of his artistic pieces show Norse motifs. It was William Morris who was the great Norse-phile, although Burne-Jones did accompany his friend on a trip to Iceland, even drawing a funny picture of a slightly obese Morris trying to climb an Icelandic mountain! And while Burne-Jones did like Wagner´s operas, he was more interested in their depiction of grail knights than their Nordic trolls and dragons. Prince Eugen met both Edward Burne-Jones and Everett Millais in London, but he preferred the artistic work and company of Symbolist painter George Frederic Watts. The main conduit of Pre-Raphaelite and Arts & Crafts influence in Scandinavia was Walter Crane. In Norway, Gerhard Munthe became the main Arts and Crafts promoter, famous for his illustrated edition of the “Heimskringla”. The painter Frida Hansen is considered more of a pure Pre-Raphaelite, due to her ethereal and spiritual style. In Sweden, Ellen Key, Elsa Beskow and the art shop Sub Rosa are associated with Arts and Crafts.

A weird facet of the catalogue is that it tries to connect the Pre-Raphaelites with fantasy fiction, including “A Game of Thrones”, and with non-binary gender identities. This is obviously a flirtation with contemporary pop culture and social agendas. It´s never followed up with any analysis anywhere in the catalogue – something of a pity, really, since many of the characters in Burne-Jones´ paintings *are* weirdly androgynous. 

And yes, I did visit the exhibition…