Jane Morris (née Burden; 19 October 1839 – 26 January 1914) was an English embroiderer in the Arts and Crafts movement and an artists' model who embodied the Pre-Raphaelite ideal of beauty. She was a model and muse to her husband William Morris and to Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Her sister was the embroiderer and teacher Elizabeth Burden.

Life

Jane Burden was born in Oxford, the daughter of a stableman, Robert Burden, and his wife Ann Maizey, who was a domestic servant or a laundress. At the time of her birth, her parents were living at St Helen's Passage, in the parish of St Peter-in-the-East, off Holywell Street in Oxford which has since been marked with a blue plaque. Her mother Ann was illiterate and probably came to Oxford as a domestic servant. Little is known of Jane Burden's childhood, but it was certainly poor.

In October 1857, Burden and her sister Elizabeth, known as Bessie, attended a performance of the Drury Lane Theatre Company in Oxford. Jane Burden was noticed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones who were members of a group of artists painting the Oxford Union murals, based on Arthurian tales. Struck by her beauty, they asked her to model for them. Burden sat mostly for Rossetti as a model for Queen Guinevere and afterwards for William Morris, who was working on an easel painting, La Belle Iseult, now in the Tate Gallery. During this period, Morris fell in love with Burden and they became engaged, though by her own admission she was not in love with Morris. While living there, they had two daughters, Jane Alice "Jenny," born 17 January 1861, and Mary "May" born 25 March 1862, who later edited her father's works.

In 1883, Jane Morris met the poet and political activist Wilfrid Scawen Blunt at a house party given by her close friend, Rosalind Howard (later Countess of Carlisle). Their sexual relationship continued until 1894 and they remained close friends until her death.

A few months before her death, she bought Kelmscott Manor to secure it for her daughters' future. However, she did not return to the house after having purchased it. Jane Morris died on 26 January 1914, while staying at 5 Brock Street in Bath. She is buried in the churchyard of St. George's Church in Kelmscott.

Paintings of Jane Morris by Dante Gabriel Rossetti:

  • The Blue Silk Dress, 1868.
  • Proserpine or Proserpina, 1874. Oil on canvas. Tate Britain gallery, London.
  • Astarte Syriaca, 1875–1879. City Art Gallery, Manchester.
  • Beatrice, a Portrait of Jane Morris, 1879. Oil on canvas  × 11 inches.
  • The Day Dream, 1880. Oil on canvas. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
  • La Donna della Fiamma, 1877. Coloured chalks. Manchester Art Gallery.
  • La Donna della Finestra, 1879. Oil on canvas. Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA.
  • La Donna Della Finestra, 1881 (unfinished).
  • Jane Morris, c. 1860. Pencil.
  • Jane Morris, 1865.
  • Mariana, 1870. Aberdeen Art Gallery.
  • Pandora, 1869.
  • Pandora, 1871.
  • La Pia de' Tolomei, 1866–1870. Oil on canvas. Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas.
  • Portrait of Mrs William Morris.
  • Portrait of Jane Morris, 1858. Pen.
  • Reverie, 1868. Chalk on paper. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK.
  • The Roseleaf, 1865. Pencil.
  • Study of Guinevere for Sir Lancelot in the Queen's Chamber, 1857.
  • Water Willow, 1871. Delaware Art Museum

Photographs of Jane Burden by Rossetti are available at [https://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/sa140.raw.html].

By William Morris:

  • La Belle Iseult (also called Queen Guinevere), 1858. Oil.

By Edward Burne-Jones:

  • Numerous stained-glass windows, including at Christ Church, Oxford.

By Evelyn De Morgan:

  • The Love Potion 1903
  • Chalk study of Jane Morris for The Hourglass, 1904. De Morgan Foundation
  • The Hourglass 1905 De Morgan Foundation Wightwick Manor

References

Further reading

  • Sharp, Frank C and Marsh, Jan, (2012) The Collected Letters of Jane Morris, Boydell & Brewer, London
  • Sharp, Frank C., ‘Morris [Burden], Jane (1839–1914)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
  • Parkins, Wendy (2013). Jane Morris: The Burden of History. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Retrieved 9 March 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt3fgtfq.