Ascension of Christ (Acts I, 1–9): Study for stained-glass window

Art Historical Context

Sir Edward Burne-Jones, a leading figure of the Pre-Raphaelite movement and the Gothic Revival, created this delicate study around 1875–84 as a preparatory design for a stained-glass window. The scene illustrates the Ascension of Christ as described in the Acts of the Apostles, a moment rich with spiritual drama that was especially popular for church windows during the Victorian era. Burne-Jones frequently collaborated with William Morris’s firm to revive medieval traditions of ecclesiastical art, bringing poetic vision and luminous color to sacred subjects. Executed in watercolor, gouache, gold paint, and graphite on a modest sheet measuring just over thirteen inches tall, the drawing reveals the artist’s meticulous approach to translating painted effects into luminous glass. The gold highlights and layered bodycolor suggest how light would pass through the final window, while the vertical format echoes the architectural constraints of a lancet panel. Such studies allowed Burne-Jones to refine compositions before craftsmen cut and assembled the actual glass. Today housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Drawings and Prints, this work offers visitors an intimate glimpse into the creative process behind some of Britain’s most celebrated Victorian stained glass. It underscores Burne-Jones’s enduring commitment to blending spiritual narrative with exquisite craftsmanship.

About the Artist

Sir Edward Burne-Jones · 1833–1898

Edward Coley Burne-Jones was born on 28 August 1833 in Birmingham, the son of a frame-maker, and lost his mother within a week of his birth. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School and the Birmingham School of Art before proceeding to Exeter College, Oxford, in 1852, intending to study theology. At Oxford he formed a lifelong friendship with William Morris, and the two young men became intoxicat...