I love surfing through art.
While there are some forms of art that just aren’t to my taste, others seem to really speak to me.
The Flower Book, by Edward Burne-Jones really stood out to me today.
Vintage art, in particular, can be really hit or miss for me, but this group of paintings is just lovely.
The collection is pretty old, from just before the year 1900.
I think the art itself is very beautiful, but what really made it interesting was the story behind the book.
Looking at the pictures, it seems pretty obvious that there are no flowers in this book. So why is it called The Flower Book?
I love this story!
While Edward Burne-Jones was vacationing in his summer home, he was inspired by the local flora, but not in the traditional way.
He was interested in the nicknames of the flowers.
Did you catch the title of the painting above? Love in a Tangle.
That’s the local name for a flower that grew near Burne-Jones’ vacation home.
His favorite source for the folknames of these flowers was a local woman by the name of Lady Eleanor Leighton Warren.
In a letter to her, he wrote:
Pray send me as many names as ever you can, for alack it is not one in ten that I can use. Of course I could make pictures to all, but I want the name and the picture to be one soul together, and indissoluble, as if they could not exist apart; so many lovely names and nothing to be done with them.
I just love that passion!
He could have had all the names he wanted, but he wanted to search until he found the perfect names. The names that spoke to him.
Not only all of that, but The Flower Book was made just for the sheer pleasure of it. It wasn’t commissioned, and he didn’t attempt to sell any of the paintings.
He painted just because he loved them! And I think that passion really showed through.
That’s all really. I just wanted to share The Flower Book with you, so you could see a little peek behind the scenes of a lovely art collection.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!
If you think these paintings from The Flower Book are as pretty as I do, you can head on over to my Redbubble shop to see a few of my favorites, which can be printed on everything from stickers to tote bags and more!
