Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, (1833 –1898) was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. He was closely involved in the renewal of the tradition of stained glass art in Britain. In addition to painting and stained glass, Burne-Jones worked in a variety of crafts and book illustration. He produced a vast amount of work throughout his career, achieved great success in his day and was influential on a number of movements such as the French Symbolists. Burne-Jones was an idealist, he was in pursuit of perfection and this quest led him to the days of knights and maidens. There is a sensuous beauty in his finest works, and it is this which ensures his work continues to be popular. Burne-Jones's aim in art is best given in some of his own words, written to a friend:
"I mean by a picture a beautiful, romantic dream of something that never was, never will be - in a light better than any light that ever shone - in a land no one can define or remember, only desire - and the forms divinely beautiful - and then I wake up, with the waking of Brynhild."