Edward Coley Burne-Jones was born in Birmingham on 28 August 1833. He became one of the leading painters and designers associated with the later Pre-Raphaelite movement. Much of his work was for buildings and decorative objects rather than picture galleries.

Burne-Jones’s father was a frame-maker and gilder. His mother died within days of his birth, and he was raised in Birmingham, attending King Edward’s School before going to Exeter College, Oxford.

He arrived at Oxford intending to enter the Church. There he met William Morris, another student considering a clerical career. Their friendship changed the direction of both men’s lives. Burne-Jones left Oxford without taking a degree and decided to become an artist.

He received encouragement from Dante Gabriel Rossetti and became associated with the second generation of artists working in the Pre-Raphaelite tradition. His collaboration with Morris became equally important.

In 1861 Burne-Jones was among the founding partners of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., the decorative arts firm later reorganised as Morris & Co. Burne-Jones supplied designs for stained glass and also worked on tapestries, illustrations, mosaics and other decorative projects alongside his paintings.

Churches across Britain received windows designed by Burne-Jones and produced by Morris’s firm. Among them was St Philip’s in Birmingham, the church where Burne-Jones had been baptised.

Between the 1880s and 1890s, he designed four large stained-glass windows for the building, which later became Birmingham Cathedral.