Style Imitating Art | “The Garden of the Hesperides” by Edward Burne-Jones

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

Salazar chose this particular painting because she has always loved the Pre-Raphaelites and we have never featured this artist before. She said, “The painting has a spring-like subject (the Hesperides are the nymphs who tend to Hera’s orchard in Greek mythology), while the warm color palette makes it winter-appropriate” and perfect for styling something colorful during these gray February days.

The Artwork

“The Garden of the Hesperides” by Edward Burne-Jones

About the Artist: Edward Burne-Jones

Edward Coley Burne Jones (the hyphen was added later) was born on August 28, 1833, in Birmingham, England, to Welsh frame-maker Edward Richard Jones and his wife Elizabeth Jones (née Coley), who died within 6 days of giving birth to Edward. Young Edward was subsequently raised by his father and the family’s housekeeper, Ann Sampson, a local girl who was without humor or intellect but was obsessively affectionate towards her young ward.

Edward obtained his early education at King Edward VI grammar school in Birmingham followed by the Birmingham School of Art where he graduated in 1852 before enrolling in theology classes at Exeter College, Oxford. During his time at Oxford, Edward befriended William Morris, his classmate, fellow artist, writer, and social activist. The two Exeter undergrads along with a few friends formed a “Brotherhood” society known as the Birmingham Set. The group’s activities included a shared interest in contemporary literature, visiting churches, and idealizing the social structure and other aspects from the Middle Ages. During this time, Burne-Jones discovered Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Mallory which would become a highly influential work in the young artist’s life.

Poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti was another influence for Edward and his pal William which led to the pair eventually recruiting him as a contributing writer for the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, which was founded by Morris in 1856 as a platform to promote the Brotherhood’s ideas. Influenced by Rossetti, the young Burne-Jones, who had originally intended to become a church minister, left his theology program to become an artist instead.

In 1856, Burne-Jones became engaged to Georgiana “Georgie” MacDonald, a fellow painter and sister to one of his old school friends. They married on June 9, 1860, and a son Philip was born in 1861. In the winter of 1864, Georgiana gave birth to a second son, Christopher, while she was gravely ill with scarlet fever, resulting in the baby’s death shortly after birth. The family soon moved to 41 Kensington Square where a daughter, Margaret, was born in 1866.

In 1867, the family settled into an 18th century garden home in the North End of London known as the Grange. In the 1870s, he was met with hostility from the press following his passionate affair with Greek model Maria Zambaco which ended in her suicide attempt. Throughout that decade, Burne-Jones did not exhibit any artwork. During these trying years, his wife developed a close friendship with William Morris whose wife Jane was in love with Dante Rossetti. Despite this tangled web of love affairs among friends, all three couples remained in their original marriages.

The Burne-Jones family purchased Prospect House and neighboring Aubrey Cottage in Rottingdean to create their holiday home, known as North End House, in 1880. The couple’s first born, Philip, became a successful portrait painter, and died in 1926. Their daughter Margaret married academic John William Mackail, friend and biographer of Morris. Their union produced three children, two of whom became successful novelists. Margaret died in 1953.

During the 1890s, Burne-Jones suffered from a long illness which limited his painting activities. In 1894, he was awarded a baronetcy by the British Crown but poor health continued to hinder the progress of his work. After William Morris died in 1896, Burne-Jones’s health continued to decline substantially. In 1898, Edward became ill with influenza from which he apparently recovered. However, he suffered a sudden relapse and died on June 17, 1898, at the age of 64. He was survived by his wife and two children.

Because I spent the weekend prepping Super Bowl food and then cleaned it all up late into the night last night, followed by a nasty midnight bout of some kind of stomach ick, I never got around to writing this post until past the last minute. Therefore, I am going to refer you to Marsha’s post because she has covered Burne-Jones’s artistic career in wonderful detail that is easy and fun to read. Of course, you can also jump into Wikipedia for the same information if you prefer. Whichever you choose, if you want more information about the artistic career of Edward Burne-Jones, you’ll have to go somewhere else to find it. You won’t find it here!

About the Art: “The Garden of the Hesperides”

“The Garden of Hesperides” is an 1869 painting by Edward Burne-Jones. The medium is tempera, gouache, and oil on canvas mounted on cardboard, measuring 46.8 inches (119 cm) x 38.5 inches (98 cm) with a frame that measures 47.24 inches (120 cm) x 55.31 inches (140.5 cm). The original work is currently housed in the art museum, Hamburger Kunsthalle, in Hamburg, Germany. Like Marsha, I struggled to find any more detailed information about this specific painting. Sorry, Marsha, my sleuthing prowess has failed me this time!

Helpful Links:

• Wikipedia: Edward Burne-Jones
• Wikimedia Commons: The Garden of Hesperides

About My Outfit

This style challenge was simultaneously easy and difficult. Easy because I have a plethora of flowing robes and long dresses that are reminiscent of the garden nymphs’ garb. Difficult because I had a seemingly countless variety of outfit combinations that would work for representing this painting. Even more difficult was adding appropriate layers without too much bulk in order to tolerate the -20˚F (-28.9˚C) temperature during picture time.

After sorting through a variety of dress and robe combinations, I finally settled on this peachy colored leafy print sundress paired with my colorful Kantha Bae robe. The print mix between the two garments as well as the combined color palette seemed to really capture the garden vibes of the painting.

Since all the gardens are frozen around here right now, some creative layering was necessary to keep warm without adding an outfit-covering coat. First, I put some leggings and my bright orange turtleneck underneath the dress. Wanting to add some bits of blue to my outfit to reflect to blue snake wrapped around the tree in the painting, I added a navy blue belt to my dress, a navy blue cardigan between my dress and my robe, navy blue cat gloves (the cats have nothing to do with the painting, they are just my only blue gloves), and a white and blue patterned scarf which has been acting as a vanity runner until my kitten recently broke a rose globe all over it requiring immediate clean up. Since I just washed the scarf, I figured I’d wear it before putting back on my vanity.

I completed this very wintery garden-inspired outfit with my old brown Doc Martens, my mushroom hat which reminds me of a garden, and my green snake earrings.

Overall, I was pleased with the end result of this style challenge. However, I would probably never wear this outfit in real life because long dresses really aren’t that functional during these very cold and snowy winter days.

I hope you have enjoyed this round of Style Imitating Art. Be sure to check out how Salazar and Marsha have styled this oil painting. If you would like to participate in this Style Imitating Art challenge and have your outfit included in Salazar’s round up post on Wednesday, February 11, 2026, please be sure to send your photos to her at 14shadesofgreyblog@gmail.com by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, February 10, 2026.

Happy styling!

Shelbee