[Illustration: ANGEL OF ANNUNCIATION, BY BURNE-JONES] _Sir Edward Burne-Jones_ THREE The mother of Sir Edward Burne-Jones died when he was born. The lot of a lad without a mother is bound to be a hard one, especially if he has no brothers or sisters. His father would permit him to read only two or three books; but one of them was Æsop's Fables, and this was the boy's favorite, because it had prints in it. The child used to spend much time before the shop windows looking at the volumes he might not read. He was never very strong physically. This course seems to have driven the boy to living in the realms of the imagination,--a training for the painter of nymphs and fairies he was to become later. Not until he was twenty-three, it is said, did Burne-Jones see a good picture. When he went up to Oxford he formed a friendship with William Morris, a youth almost as shy as himself. They read Ruskin's "Modern Painters" together, and told each other their dreams. At London during one of the vacations he came into touch with Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and on advice of this artist gave up his studies at Oxford to devote himself exclusively to the study of art. However frail Burne-Jones may have been physically, there could have been no lack of mental courage in the man who could take such a bold step as this. His struggle was a long one and a hard one; but he was never without the help and encouragement of warm friends, Ruskin among them. He traveled to Italy. On his second trip he went with Ruskin. But with the possible exception of Botticelli, the Italian masters had little direct influence upon his work. He seems to have caught their spirit of doing things, of doing them as well as he was able, with deep sincerity of feeling. He was one of the leading spirits of the Preraphaelites, a band of young men who hoped to regenerate art by putting into their work the simplicity and sincerity that had actuated the artists before Raphael's time. He married in 1860, and settled on the outskirts of London. A gradually increasing host of friends began to make their way to his modest home. Burne-Jones felt that, wherever else he might be at fault, in spirit he was right. So he did not reach for the fame that makes less wise men seek short cuts, but worked steadily and carefully. His reputation increased, honors came to him, and before he died he knew that his work was being appreciated. In 1894, four years before his death, a baronetcy was conferred upon him by Queen Victoria, and to those who knew the man and his work this was felt to be not higher than was deserved. [Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD WITH ANGELS, BY BELLINI.] _Giovanni Bellini_ FOUR