See more
What inspired William Morris designs?
William Morris's frustration at being unable to find furnishings to his taste led him to design his own. An exasperation with the state of British manufactured goods was another impetus for the establishment of an interior decoration business in 1861.
Why was William Morris so influential?
Morris was most recognised in his lifetime for his contribution to Victorian poetry and is the author of many poetical works, the most famous of which are The Earthly Paradise and The Defence of Guinevere. He also wrote novels, and made an ambitious translation of the Icelandic Sagas.
Why did William Morris make wallpapers?
He warned in his essay 'The Lesser Arts' (1877) against the likes of "sham-real boughs and flowers", and advised those designing wallpapers "to avoid falling into the trap of trying to make your paper look as if it were painted by hand".
What was William Morris famous for saying?
“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” – William Morris.
How did William Morris create his patterns?
Morris had his wallpapers printed by hand, using carved, pear woodblocks loaded with natural, mineral-based dyes, and pressed down with the aid of a foot-operated weight. Each design was made by carefully lining up and printing the woodblock motifs again and again to create a seamless repeat.
What was William Morris art style?
Arts and Crafts movementPre‑Rapha... BrotherhoodWilliam Morris/Periods
What were William Morris designs used for?
The first textile designs Morris made were created in the 1860s and were for embroideries, expressing his interest in medieval arts and crafts, particularly the medieval wall hangings that he admired as a child.
Did you know facts about William Morris?
10 Facts about William MorrisHis nickname was Topsy. ... He was married with two daughters. ... His wife Jane had a well known affair with his friend Rossetti. ... He had strong political views. ... He was intended to be a man of the cloth. ... Not content with just textile and wallpaper designs, Morris also founded the Kelmscott Press.More items...•
What was William Morris's most famous art piece?
Woodpecker Tapestry Most of Morris's best-known tapestry designs were created in collaboration with artists, such as Philip Webb and Edward Burne-Jones.
What is the name of the movement which Morris helped establish in the late 19th century?
William Morris (1834–1896) was the towering figure in late 19th-century design and the main influence on the Arts and Crafts movement.
Did you know facts about William Morris?
10 Facts about William MorrisHis nickname was Topsy. ... He was married with two daughters. ... His wife Jane had a well known affair with his friend Rossetti. ... He had strong political views. ... He was intended to be a man of the cloth. ... Not content with just textile and wallpaper designs, Morris also founded the Kelmscott Press.More items...•
What art does William Morris create?
William MorrisOccupationTextile Designer Poet Translator Socialist ActivistKnown forWallpaper and Textile Design Fantasy Fiction Medievalism SocialismNotable workNews from Nowhere, The Well at the World's EndSpouse(s)Jane Burden ( m. 1859)6 more rows
What is the only easel painting by Morris to reach this level of near completion?
La Belle Iseult (1858) Although this painting has been listed since its creation as 'unfinished', it is the only easel painting by Morris to reach this level of near-completion, and a quintessential work of Pre-Raphaelite-era portraiture.
What pattern is inscribed on the plaster walls?
The patterns inscribed into the green-painted plaster walls were the work of Morris alone, however. Olive boughs, raised up in the plaster, wrap around the room in an endless pattern, punctuated by the splashes of color introduced by flowers and berries.
What did William Morris do in the nineteenth century?
Training first as a priest and then as an architect before abandoning both to realize his visions of medieval arcadia in the company of the Pre-Raphaelites, ...
What does the dog on the bed mean in Mallory's story?
The dog on the bed, given to Iseult by Tristram in Mallory's story, stands for loyalty, the rosemary in her crown for remembrance. The painting also alludes in various ways to Morris's artistic and personal biography.
What was Morris's main goal at the end of his life?
Towards the end of his life, Morris focused with increasing singularity on the radical political ambitions which had always underpinned his practice, publishing utopian socialist fantasy literature, and consolidating his lifelong work as a poet.
What was Morris' art?
For Morris, art was nothing if it was not a product of craftsmanship: a collaborative, spiritually imbued activity by which human beings grew together in kinship, and in connection to their natural environment.
Where was William Morris born?
William Morris was born in 1834 in Walthamstow, Essex, the third of nine children. William's father, after whom he was named, was a self-made business man, who was able to provide an upper-middle-class lifestyle for his family because of a shrewd investment in a Devonshire mine. Although William Morris Senior died when his son was just thirteen, ...
What did Morris do in 1870?
Morris was keenly interested in Icelandic literature, having befriended the Icelandic theologian Eiríkur Magnússon. Together they produced prose translations of the Eddas and Sagas for publication in English. Morris also developed a keen interest in creating handwritten illuminated manuscripts, producing 18 such books between 1870 and 1875, the first of which was A Book of Verse, completed as a birthday present for Georgina Burne-Jones. 12 of these 18 were handwritten copies of Nordic tales such as Halfdan the Black, Frithiof the Bold, and The Dwellers of Eyr. Morris deemed calligraphy to be an art form, and taught himself both Roman and italic script, as well as learning how to produce gilded letters. In November 1872 he published Love is Enough, a poetic drama based on a story in the Medieval Welsh text, the Mabinogion. Illustrated with Burne-Jones woodcuts, it was not a popular success. By 1871, he had begun work on a novel set in the present, The Novel on Blue Paper, which was about a love triangle; it would remain unfinished and Morris later asserted that it was not well written.
What did Morris do in the Middle Ages?
Instead he developed a keen interest in Medieval history and Medieval architecture, inspired by the many Medieval buildings in Oxford. This interest was tied to Britain's growing Medievalist movement, a form of Romanticism that rejected many of the values of Victorian industrial capitalism. For Morris, the Middle Ages represented an era with strong chivalric values and an organic, pre-capitalist sense of community, both of which he deemed preferable to his own period. This attitude was compounded by his reading of Thomas Carlyle 's book Past and Present (1843), in which Carlyle championed Medieval values as a corrective to the problems of Victorian society. Under this influence, Morris's dislike of contemporary capitalism grew, and he came to be influenced by the work of Christian socialists Charles Kingsley and Frederick Denison Maurice.
What is William Morris Society?
The William Morris Society founded in 1955 is devoted to his legacy, while multiple biographies and studies of his work have been published. Many of the buildings associated with his life are open to visitors, much of his work can be found in art galleries and museums, and his designs are still in production.
What happened to Morris' father?
In 1847, Morris's father died unexpectedly. From this point, the family relied upon continued income from the copper mines at Devon Great Consols, and sold Woodford Hall to move into the smaller Water House. In February 1848 Morris began his studies at Marlborough College in Marlborough, Wiltshire, where he gained a reputation as an eccentric nicknamed "Crab". He despised his time there, being bullied, bored, and homesick. He did use the opportunity to visit many of the prehistoric sites of Wiltshire, such as Avebury and Silbury Hill, which fascinated him. The school was Anglican in faith and in March 1849 Morris was confirmed by the Bishop of Salisbury in the college chapel, developing an enthusiastic attraction towards the Anglo-Catholic movement and its Romanticist aesthetic. At Christmas 1851, Morris was removed from the school and returned to Water House, where he was privately tutored by the Reverend Frederick B. Guy, Assistant Master at the nearby Forest School.
Where did Morris live?
Morris rented the rural retreat of Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire, from 1871 while also retaining a main home in London. He was greatly influenced by visits to Iceland with Eiríkr Magnússon, and he produced a series of English-language translations of Icelandic Sagas.
Was Morris a socialist?
Politically, Morris was a staunch revolutionary socialist and anti-imperialist , and although raised a Christian he came to be an atheist. He came to reject state socialism and large centralised control, instead emphasising localised administration within a socialist society. Later political activist Derek Wall suggested that Morris could be classified as an ecosocialist. Morris was greatly influenced by Romanticism, with Thompson asserting that Romanticism was "bred into his bones, and formed his early consciousness." Thompson argued that this "Romantic Revolt" was part of a "passionate protest against an intolerable social reality", that of the industrial capitalism of Britain's Victorian era. He believed that it led to little more than a "yearning nostalgia or a sweet complaint" and that Morris only became "a realist and a revolutionary" when he adopted socialism in 1882. Mackail was of the opinion that Morris had an "innate Socialism" which had "penetrated and dominated all he did" throughout his life. Given the conflict between his personal and professional life and his socio-political views, MacCarthy described Morris as "a conservative radical".
What are some of the best poems of all time?
Collected poetry, fiction, and essays 1 The Hollow Land (1856) 2 The Defence of Guenevere, and other Poems (1858) 3 The Life and Death of Jason (1867) 4 The Earthly Paradise (1868–1870) 5 Love is Enough, or The Freeing of Pharamond: A Morality (1872) 6 The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs (1877) 7 Hopes and Fears For Art (1882) 8 The Pilgrims of Hope (1885) 9 A Dream of John Ball (1888) 10 Signs of Change (1888) 11 A Tale of the House of the Wolfings, and All the Kindreds of the Mark Written in Prose and in Verse (1889) 12 The Roots of the Mountains (1889) 13 News from Nowhere (or, An Epoch of Rest) (1890) 14 The Story of the Glittering Plain (1891) 15 Poems By the Way (1891) 16 Socialism: Its Growth and Outcome (1893) (With E. Belfort Bax) 17 The Wood Beyond the World (1894) 18 Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair (1895) 19 The Well at the World's End (1896) 20 The Water of the Wondrous Isles (1897) 21 The Sundering Flood (1897) (published posthumously) 22 A King's Lesson (1901) 23 The World of Romance (1906) 24 Chants for Socialists (1935) 25 Golden Wings and Other Stories (1976)
What is the Morris room called?
The V&A dining room decorated by Morris, now called The Morris room. V&A. At least one of his mass-produced designs contained a cheap arsenic-laden pigment that was already causing a health scare, of which he was aware.
What are some of William Morris's famous names?
The names are a giveaway. ‘Jasmine Trellis’, ‘Wreath’, ‘Willow’, ‘Chrysanthemum’, ‘Strawberry Thief ’... Even if all you had were the names, you would know William Morris, writer, artist and cornerstone of the Arts and Crafts movement, ...
Where did Morris start his career?
Morris started, as many do, by creating patterns with which to decorate his own home, the Red House in Kent. He insisted on researching medieval dyeing and printing methods. He was fond of showing visitors to his home dye vats in his outhouses, and his wife’s delicate embroidery.
Who is Lauren Mclean?
Lauren Mclean. He delighted in the title of craftsman. His designs were stylised – he disliked ‘sham-real boughs and flowers’ – but were nevertheless naturalistic and flowing, inspired by the hedgerows, briar patches and formal gardens of his childhood.
Who is the author of Strawberry Thief?
’Strawberry Thief’ by William Morris. Gary O'Kane. Morris started, as many do, by creating patterns with which to decorate his own home, the Red House in Kent.
Is Elle Decoration delivered to your door?
Keep your spirits up and subscribe to ELLE Decoration here, so our magazine is delivered direct to your door.
Who is William Morris?
Even if all you had were the names, you would know William Morris, writer, artist and cornerstone of the Arts and Crafts movement , delighted in the natural world. Born in 1834, he spent his childhood exploring the Essex countryside and reading the novels of Sir Walter Scott. All around him, however, Britain was embracing the industrial age.
Overview
Work
William Morris was a prolific writer of poetry, fiction, essays, and translations of ancient and medieval texts. His first poems were published when he was 24 years old, and he was polishing his final novel, The Sundering Flood, at the time of his death. His daughter May's edition of Morris's Collected Works (1910–1915) runs to 24 volumes, and two more were published in 1936.
Morris began publishing poetry and short stories in 1856 through The Oxford and Cambridge Ma…
Early life
Morris was born at Elm House in Walthamstow, Essex, on 24 March 1834. Raised into a wealthy middle-class family, he was named after his father, a financier who worked as a partner in the Sanderson & Co. firm, bill brokers in the City of London. His mother was Emma Morris (née Shelton), who descended from a wealthy bourgeois family from Worcester. Morris was the third of his parents' surviving children; their first child, Charles, had been born in 1827 but died four days …
Career and fame
Morris desired a new home for himself and his daughters resulting in the construction of the Red House in the Kentish hamlet of Upton near Bexleyheath, ten miles from central London. The building's design was a co-operative effort, with Morris focusing on the interiors and the exterior being designed by Webb, for whom the House represented his first commission as an independent architect. Named after the red bricks and red tiles from which it was constructed, R…
Later life
In summer 1881, Morris took out a lease on the seven-acre former silk weaving factory, the Merton Abbey Works, next to the River Wandle on the High Street at Merton, Southwest London (not to be confused with the adjacent Merton Abbey Mills, home of the Liberty Print Works.) Moving his workshops to the site, the premises were used for weaving, dyeing, and creating stained glass; within three years, 100 craftsmen were employed there. Working conditions at th…
Personal life
Morris's biographer E. P. Thompson described him as having a "robust bearing, and a slight roll in his walk", alongside a "rough beard" and "disordered hair". The author Henry James described Morris as "short, burly, corpulent, very careless and unfinished in his dress ... He has a loud voice and a nervous restless manner and a perfectly unaffected and businesslike address. His talk indeed is wonderfully to the point and remarkable for clear good sense." Morris's first biographe…
Legacy
President of the William Morris Society Hans Brill referred to Morris as "one of the outstanding figures of the nineteenth century", while Linda Parry termed him the "single most important figure in British textile production". At the time of Morris's death, his poetry was known internationally and his company's products were found all over the world. In his lifetime, he was best known as a poet, although by the late twentieth century he was primarily known as a designer of wallpapers …
Literary works
Source: Morris Online Edition at William Morris Archive. Morris's literary works, translations, life and images, the Book Arts
• The Hollow Land (1856)
• The Defence of Guenevere, and other Poems (1858)
• The Life and Death of Jason (1867)