WILLIAM MORRIS
W. Morris was born in 1834 in Walthamstow, London. He was one of the last
romantics and one of the most versatile and influential men of his age. Although he
lived in the XIXth century, his impact as a promoter of revolutionary ideas as socialist,
writer of poetry and fiction, critic, designer and manufacturer spread over on the society
of the XXth century and that influence still remains nowadays. He is known as one of
the fathers of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England and the promoter of the
philosophy of contemporary Schools of Arts.
He was a committed socialist working directly with Eleanor Marx and Engels to
begin the socialist movement in England. He joined the Social Democratic Federation
and he organized the breakaway Socialist League. He espoused the philosophy that art
should be for people and by the people. Art should be affordable for any class society.
Also, he was against the sterility of English industrialization; he maintained that, as in
the Middle Ages with craftsmen, designers should control the whole process of creation
from drawing to making up the pieces of work. They should seek beauty and not forget
the handicraft side of the process.
It was at Exeter College in Oxford university that Morris met his long-life
friends and collaborators, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox
Brown and Philip Webb. These friends were associated in 1848 with an artistic
movement, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to express the simplicity and beauty of
medieval world. Their painting style and art movement identified their essence with the
Italian painters of Renaissance before Raphael. They aimed to study nature, to
sympathize with serious and heartfelt topics and their works were full of literary
symbolism, bright colours and attention to detail. They used to paint representative
ethereal female beauties long haired in mystical atmospheres.
Morris studied painting among the group after giving up his training as an
architect. He joined an architecture firm, but soon found himself drawn more and more
to the decorative arts. The architect Phillip Webb built Red House at Bexleyheath in
Kent, (this was Morris’s wedding gift to Jane Burden) and it was there where his
designs ideas began to take physical shape. In 1861 he founded his own firm: Morris,
Marshall, Faulkner and Company with Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Phillip Webb and other
members of the Pre-Raphaelite group who worked cooperatively stained glass for
windows, furniture, wallpaper, tapestries, textiles, drawings and paintings.
Morris also lived and worked in other houses, he founded the Kelmscott Press
House at Hammersmith, London, in order to produce examples of improved printing
and book design. The books were designed with the prevalence of lithography,
particularly those lithographic prints designed to look like woodcut prints. He died in
this house at the age of 62 in 1896 leaving a legacy of writings, translations and works
of design.
The Morris Societies in Britain, the US and Canada are active in preserving
Morris´s work and ideas today. Red House was opened up to the public by The National
Trust in 2004. His designs are still sold today under licences given to different firms of
London, in contradiction to Morris´s ideas against massive production.
SLIDES
The wallpapers and tapestries designs are characterized by elements of nature
like plants with curved shapes filling the space with symmetrical figures of leaves and
flowers.
1. The artichoke wallpaper.
2.
2. Acanthus wallpaper.
3.
Red House. Morris lived and worked here for five years.
4. Red House.
5. Flora. Tapestry
6. Green leaves, wallpaper.
7. Fruits
8.
Flowers
9. &St Martin´s Church, Brampton. Stained glass windows.
10. St Martin´s Church, Brampton. Stained glass windows.
11. Detail. Pelican
12. Stained glass, front side.
13. Morris´s only surviving easel painting, now in the Tate Gallery. Iseult or
Queen Guenevere.
14. Book design. Horace. Typical ornamented border.
15. Illustration. Lithography which resembles the woodcut technique.
16. This tapestry is one of a series called “The quest of the Holy Grail” designed
by Morris and Co. there are 5 pieces, each recounting a different part of the
story of King Arthur´s search for the Holy Grail. This is the second of the
series and it is titled “The arming and departure of the knights.
17. Panel of ceramic tiles