Rossetti's mural- Sir Lancelot's Vision of the Holy Grail

The Oxford Union murals (1857–1859) are a series of

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

decorations in the

Oxford Union The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...

library building. The series was executed by a team of

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

artists including

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 ...

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

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 ...

. The paintings depict scenes from Arthurian myth. The murals were commissioned by

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...

and the subject was probably chosen as a result of earlier Pre-Raphaelite interest in Arthurian themes, such as the illustrations to

Edward Moxon Edward Moxon (12 December 1801 – 3 June 1858) was a British poet and publisher, significant in Victorian literature. Biography Moxon was born at Wakefield in Yorkshire, where his father Michael worked in the wool trade. In 1817 he left ...

's 1857 edition of

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 ...

. In addition to Rossetti, Morris and Burne-Jones, several other artists agreed to contribute. These were the painters Val Prinsep, Arthur Hughes, J. H. Pollen,

John Roddam Spencer Stanhope John Roddam Spencer Stanhope (20 January 1829 – 2 August 1908) was an English artist associated with Edward Burne-Jones and George Frederic Watts and often regarded as a second-wave pre-Raphaelite. His work is also studied within the context ...

and the sculptor Alexander Munro.Clare A. P. Willsdon, ''Mural painting in Britain 1840-1940: image and meaning'', Oxford University Press, 2004, p.258. Detail of Jane Burden

The process of painting the murals was notoriously chaotic. Ruskin said that the artists were "all the least bit crazy and it's very difficult to manage them." As the murals were painted directly onto the wall without plaster or adequate underpainting they began to suffer decay very quickly. William Morris later completely repainted his design for the ceiling. Rossetti's main work was ''Sir Lancelot's Vision of the Holy Grail''. Burne-Jones painted ''Nimue brings Sir Peleus to Ettarde after their Quarrel''. Morris executed ''Sir Palomides' jealousy of Sir Tristram and Iseult'', though his work has been described as “poorly and clumsily painted, but the background of leaves and flowers” revealed his skills in design.C. Wood, ''The Pre-Raphaelites'', London: Seven Dials, 1981, p. 110 View of the north facing interior of the Oxford Union Library at night

View of the north facing interior of the Oxford Union Library at night

Jane Burden 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 to her husband William ...

, who would later marry

, first appears as a model in the Oxford murals. Burden was noticed by Rossetti and Burne-Jones when she was visiting an Oxford theatre with her sister. Struck by Jane's beauty, they sought her to model for them. In 1906 Rossetti's Pre-Raphaelite colleague

William Holman Hunt William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolis ...

, who had not been directly involved, wrote a book on the history of the decorations.

Notes

{{Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Murals in the United Kingdom Paintings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti Paintings in Oxford 1850s paintings 19th-century murals Pre-Raphaelite paintings Paintings by Edward Burne-Jones Works by William Morris