Artist

Edward Francis Burney

Edward Francis Burney is a Romanticism artist. 2 works are cataloged here, principally at Victoria and Albert Museum.

Edward Francis Burney’s sharpest trick was turning gossip into gossip art. The guy sketched London coffee-house chatter the way we now scroll Twitter, tiny, snarky watercolours of dowagers and dandies that feel like 1805 memes. He loved poking fun at fancy finishing schools; one sheet shows a “young ladies” academy where the classroom’s more about flirting than French.

Burney’s prints pop up in museum corners, so if you ever see a crowded print room with too many bonnets, look for the one labelled 11 October 1817, it’s the liveliest crowd scene in the joint.

Works by Edward Francis Burney

Collections represented

Catalog records compiled from museum open-access collections; the artworks shown are in the public domain. Spotted an error in this record? Tell us.