Georgiana Burne-Jones at the piano

Georgiana Burne-Jones at the piano

By Sir Edward Burne-Jones
with inscription 'G B-J by E B-J'
(on an old label attached to the backboard)
pencil
3¾ x 3 7/8 in. (9.5 x 9.8 cm.)

"... Georgie was a talented muscian, playing the piano well and possessing a good singing voice, with which she would render the early songs and border ballards so popular in her circle at this date. The piano she plays in our drawing is reminiscent of the small upright, made by Priestly of Berners Street in unpolished American walnut, which was given to her as a wedding present and decorated by Burne-Jones. The instrument is now in the Victoria & Albert Museum." - from the catalogue notes

Blanche F. MacArthur - Georgiana Burne-Jones

Portrait of Georgiana MacDonald, later Lady Burne-Jones

Signed and dated 1881, oil on canvas
53 x 43.5cm (20 7/8 x 17 1/8in)

"Georgiana Macdonald (1840-1920) was one of eleven children born into a strict methodist family, in 1860 she married the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Coley Burne-Jones. Many of her siblings also courted fame: One sister married Edward Poynter, artist and president of the Royal Academy; another was mother to Stanley Baldwin and a fourth sister was mother to Rudyard Kipling." - catalogue note

An interesting posting from Stephanie Pina at Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood - 'Sweet Georgie ...'

Georgiana Burne-Jones

Georgiana, circa 1861-2
By Sir Edward Burne-Jones

"... depicts Burne-Jones's wife, Georgiana in circa 1861-2. There is a possibility that it was a study for the wall hanging made for John Ruskin's new house in the Wye valley depicting Chaucer's 'The Legend of Good Women'."- from the catalogue notes