Portrait of a Muse

Andrew Gailey

ISBN 10: 1913394409 / ISBN 13: 9781913394400

Published by Bitter Lemon Press, GB, 2020

About this Item

'You haunt me everywhere.' So wrote Edward Burne-Jones to Frances Graham, his muse for the last 25 triumphant years of his life: 'I haven't a corner of my life or my thoughts where you are not'. He drew her obsessively, included her in some of his most famous paintings, and showered her with gifts. Even when she betrayed him to marry, he would return to her. To him 'all the romance and beauty of my life means you.' This is the first biography of his muse. In a discreet, subtle, human way, her life is a study in power - artistic, social, political, familial, local - and all the more fascinating for being played out from a perennial position of weakness. What makes a muse? The word conjures up for the artist a human cocoon of sexual allure and worship: part inspiration, part lover and protector. Yet however beguiling, demanding and volatile a muse could be, it remained a life surrendered to the art of another. In Victorian England, this was especially so with the hierarchies between the sexes so firmly entrenched. The life of a muse to a Pre-Raphaelite artist was no different: Ruskin and Effie Gray, Rossetti and Lizzie Siddal, both powerfully destructive relationships that ended respectively in divorce and death. The one who survived was Frances Graham. She had a restless, irrepressible intelligence, able to mix at her small dinners politicians and aristocrats with writers, artists and the up and coming, be they Oscar Wilde or Albert Einstein. In time, she became the confidante of three government ministers, including Asquith, the Liberal leader. 'The Portrait of a Muse' is the tale of a remarkable woman living in an age on the cusp of modernity.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781913394400

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Portrait of a Muse
• Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press, GB
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1913394409
• ISBN 13: 9781913394400
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The first biography of Frances Graham, the muse of leading Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones for the last 25 years of his life. In a discreet, subtle, human way, her life is a study in power – artistic, social, political, familial, local – and all the more fascinating for being played out from a perennial position of weakness. 'The Portrait of a Muse' is the tale of a remarkable woman living in an age on the cusp of modernity. 75 illustrations.

About the Author

Dr Andrew Gailey has taught in the history department at Eton College since 1981 and is Vice-Provost of the College. His most recent book is "The Lost Imperialist: Lord Dufferin, Memory and Mythmaking in an Age of Celebrity", winner of the 2016 Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography.