- Title
- Jane Burden Morris
- Medium
- Colored chalk on green paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 22 x 18 in. (55.88 x 45.72 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.39.3.32
- Collecting Area
- Prints and Drawings
- Curatorial Notes
Jane Burden Morris (1839–1914) was an English artist’s model, embroiderer, and key figure in the Pre-Raphaelite art movement. She was born into a working-class family in Oxford, and her life was transformed after she was discovered by artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones in 1857. Her striking features—intense gaze, elongated neck, and lustrous dark hair—were immortalized in numerous paintings and drawings. In 1859, Burden married William Morris, a designer, writer, and social activist. She contributed to the Arts and Crafts movement in her own right, creating intricate embroidery and promoting the handcrafted aesthetic. By the late 1860s, the Morris family was living at Kelmscott Manor, where Rossetti frequently stayed and worked. Jane Morris and Rossetti had an intimate connection that was likely also a romantic affair for a period of around twelve years. This drawing probably dates from the most intense period of their relationship, 1870–71, when Rossetti portrayed her in many guises, from mythological goddesses to literary heroines, and it may have been a study for a painting.
Britt Salvesen
2024
