Jane Morris (née Burden; 19 October 1839 – 26 January 1914) was an English embroiderer in the Arts and Crafts movement and artists' model who embodied the Pre-Raphaelite ideal of beauty. She was a model and

muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

to her husband

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

and to

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...

. Her sister was embroiderer and teacher Elizabeth Burden.

Life

Jane Burden was born in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, 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 Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

and probably came to Oxford as a

domestic servant A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...

. Little is known of Jane Burden's childhood, but it was certainly poor. In October 1857, Burden and her sister

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...

, known as Bessie, attended a performance of the Drury Lane Theatre Company in Oxford. Jane Burden was noticed by

and

Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman ...

who were members of a group of artists painting the Oxford Union murals, based on

Arthurian King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as a ...

tales. Struck by her beauty, they asked her to

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

for them. Burden sat mostly for Rossetti as a model for Queen Guinevere and afterwards for

, who was working on an easel painting, ''La Belle Iseult'', now in the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

. 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. Burden's education was limited, and she probably was destined to go into

domestic service A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...

like her mother. After her engagement, she was privately educated to become a gentleman's wife. Her keen intelligence allowed her to recreate herself. She was a voracious reader who became proficient in French and Italian, and she became an accomplished pianist with a strong background in classical music. Her manners and speech became refined to an extent that contemporaries referred to her as "queenly." Later in life, she had no trouble moving in upper-class circles. She was the model for the heroine of the 1884 novel ''Miss Brown'' by

Vernon Lee Vernon Lee was the pseudonym of the British writer Violet Paget (14 October 1856 – 13 February 1935). She is remembered today primarily for her supernatural fiction and her work on aesthetics. An early follower of Walter Pater, she wrote o ...

and may also have influenced

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

in creating the character of Eliza Doolittle in his play '' Pygmalion'' (1914) and the later film ''

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play '' Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons ...

'' (1964). She also became a skilled needlewoman, self-taught in ancient embroidery techniques, and later became renowned for her own embroideries. Jane married William Morris at St Michael at the Northgate in Oxford on 26 April 1859. After the marriage, the Morrises moved to the quasi-medieval Red House in Bexleyheath, Kent. 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. They moved to 26 Queen Square in London, which they shared with the design firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., and later bought Kelmscott House in Hammersmith as their main residence. Although Jane, her daughters Jenny and May, and her sister Bessie all supervised and embroidered for Morris & Co., credit for the designs were given to William Morris himself "in the interests of commercial success." The three embroidered panels depicting the illustrious women of

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

and

Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

's writing now at

Castle Howard Castle Howard is a stately home in North Yorkshire, England, within the civil parish of Henderskelfe, located north of York. It is a private residence and has been the home of the Carlisle branch of the Howard family for more than 300 years ...

were produced by Jane and Bessie in the 1880s. In 1871, William Morris and Rossetti took out a joint tenancy on

Kelmscott Manor Kelmscott Manor is a limestone manor house in the Cotswolds village of Kelmscott, in West Oxfordshire, southern England. It dates from around 1570, with a late 17th-century wing, and is listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for Engla ...

on the Gloucestershire– Oxfordshire–

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

borders. William Morris went to Iceland, leaving his wife and Rossetti to furnish the house and spend the summer there. Jane Morris had become closely attached to Rossetti and became a favorite muse of his. Their romantic relationship is reputed to have started in the late 1860's and lasted, on differing levels, until his death in 1882. They shared a deep emotional connection, and she inspired Rossetti to write poetry and create some of his best paintings. Her discovery of his dependence on

chloral hydrate Chloral hydrate is a geminal diol with the formula . It is a colorless solid. It has limited use as a sedative and hypnotic pharmaceutical drug. It is also a useful laboratory chemical reagent and precursor. It is derived from chloral (trichl ...

, which was taken for insomnia, eventually led her to distance herself from him, although they stayed in touch until he died in 1882. In 1883, Jane Morris met the poet and political activist

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (17 August 1840 – 10 September 1922), sometimes spelt Wilfred, was an English poet and writer. He and his wife Lady Anne Blunt travelled in the Middle East and were instrumental in preserving the Arabian horse bloodlines ...

at a house party given by her close friend, Rosalind Howard (later Countess of Carlisle). There appears to have been an immediate attraction between them. By 1887 at the latest, they had become lovers. Their sexual relationship continued until 1894 and they remained close friends until her death. Despite her husband's socialism, Jane remained a supporter of the Liberal Party until her death. She was also was an ardent supporter of Irish Home Rule. 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.

Gallery

File:Jane Burden at 18 by William Morris.jpg, Jane sketched by

at age 18, during their engagement File:Jane and Jenny Morris circa 1864 by H. Smith.jpg, Jane and Jenny Morris c. 1864 File:Jane and May Morris circa 1865.jpg, Jane and

May Morris Mary "May" Morris (25 March 1862 – 17 October 1938) was an English artisan, embroidery designer, jeweller, socialist, and editor. She was the younger daughter of the Pre-Raphaelite artist and designer William Morris and his wife and artists' m ...

, c. 1865 File:Dante Gabriel Rossetti - La Pia de Tolomei.jpeg, Dante Gabriel Rossetti: '' Pia de' Tolomei'', c. 1868 File:Mariana by Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Dante Gabriel Rossetti - ABDAG002900.jpg, Morris as Mariana from Measure for Measure, by

(1870),

Aberdeen Art Gallery Aberdeen Art Gallery is the main visual arts exhibition space in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1884 in a building designed by Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, with a sculpture court added in 1905. In 1900, it received the art ...

File:Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Proserpine.jpg, Morris painted by

as '' Proserpine'' (1874) File:Dante Gabriel Rossetti - The Day Dream - Google Art Project.jpg, Dante Gabriel Rossetti – '' The Day Dream'', 1880

Paintings and artworks

Jane Morris's embroidery:
''Bag''
embroidered silk. c.1878, Colored silks, metal mount. Victoria & Albert Museum, London. * ''The Legend of Good Women'' embroidered panels, 1880s, by Jane Morris and Elizabeth Burden, Castle Howard. * ''Honeysuckle embroidery,'' designed in 1876, made 1880s, silk and linen, William Morris Gallery, London. Paintings of Jane Morris by

: * ''The Blue Silk Dress'', 1868. * '' Proserpine'' or ''Proserpina'', 1874. Oil on canvas.

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

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 The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, London. * ''La Donna della Fiamma'', 1877. Coloured chalks. Manchester Art Gallery. * ''La Donna della Finestra'', 1879. Oil on canvas.

Fogg Museum of Art The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA. * ''La Donna Della Finestra'', 1881 (unfinished). * ''Jane Morris'', c. 1860. Pencil. * ''Jane Morris'', 1865. * ''Mariana'', 1870.

. * ''Pandora'', 1869. * ''Pandora'', 1871. * '' La Pia de' Tolomei'', 1866–1870. Oil on canvas.

Spencer Museum of Art The Spencer Museum of Art is an art museum operated by the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Spencer Museum seeks to "...present its collection as a living archive that motivates object-c ...

, 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 The Delaware Art Museum is an art museum located on the Kentmere Parkway in Wilmington, Delaware, which holds a collection of more than 12,000 objects. The museum was founded in 1912 as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in honor of the artis ...

Photographs of Jane Burden by Rossetti are available a

By

: * :File:William Morris 001.jpg, ''La Belle Iseult'' (also called ''Queen Guinevere''), 1858. Oil. By

: * Numerous stained-glass windows, including at Christ Church, Oxford. By

Evelyn De Morgan Evelyn De Morgan (30 August 1855 – 2 May 1919), née Pickering, was an English painter associated early in her career with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement, and working in a range of styles including Aestheticism and Symboli ...

: * ''Chalk study of Jane Morris for The Hourglass'', 1904. De Morgan Foundation * ''The Hourglass'' 1905 De Morgan Foundation Wightwick Manor

Life

Gallery

Paintings and artworks

Notes

Further reading