" I see Burne-Jones from time to time but not as often as I should like - I am always so afraid of breaking in on his work. Whenever he is at home he is working - and when he isn't working he's not at home. When I do see him, it is one of the best human pleasures that London has for me. But I don't understand his life - that is the manner and tenor of his production - a complete studio existence - with doors and windows closed, and no search for impressions outside - no open air, no real daylight and no looking out for it. The things he does in these conditions have exceeding beauty - but they seem to me to grow colder and colder - pictured abstractions - less and less observed. Such as he is, however, he is certainly the most distinguished artistic figure among Englishmen today - the only one who has escaped vulgarization and on whom claptrap has no hold. Moreover he is, as you know, exquisite in mind and talk - and we fraternize greatly."
to Charles Eliot Norton
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