Adam 1862

This ink drawing, “Adam,” was created by Edward Burne-Jones. The artist presents an image of Adam enclosed within a carefully structured tableau of foliage and flowers. The composition uses delicate brown ink to carefully outline each form, focusing on shape and line rather than depth or volume. The flatness of the picture plane challenges traditional perspective, creating a decorative, almost textile-like quality. The stylized botanical forms are as important as the figure, framing Adam in a garden that seems both protective and confining. Burne-Jones's aesthetic engages with the semiotics of the Pre-Raphaelites. He invites viewers to reconsider the relationship between nature, representation, and the human form through this flattening of the image, where the formal qualities emphasize artifice over realism. The drawing serves not merely as a depiction but as a constructed sign, inviting ongoing interpretation.