William Morris 1834 1896 William Morris How I

William Morris 1834 -1896

William Morris " How I long to keep the world from narrowing on me, and to look at things bigly & kindly!" (William Morris)

William Morris Born: 24 March 1834 Place of Birth: Elm House in Walthamstow, England Died: 3 October 1896 Place of Death: Kelmscott House in Hammersmith, England

William Morris LIFE, ART and POLICY IN THE POINT OF HIS VIEW

William Morris ''I do not want art for a few, any more than education for a few or freedom for a few, '' “. . . made by the people and for the people, a joy to the maker and the user. '' “. . . I will now let my claims for decent life stand as I have made them. To sum them up in brief, they are: first, a healthy body; second, an active mind in sympathy with the past, the present and the future; thirdly, occupation fit enough for a healthy body and an active mind; and fourthly, a beautiful world to live in”

William Morris His political beliefs were bound up with his art: under the Victorian system, colour and individuality were leeched from life. Now a committed socialist, it bothered Morris that only the well-off could afford the work he produced. Throughout the 1870 s he produced a string of translations and poems. At the same time he became interested in the cause of Socialism. He helped to form the Socialist League, and was at one point arrested and committed for trial after a demonstration. Morris used his public popularity in court in defence of himself and his colleagues. He wrote essays, pamphlets and speeches as well as songs and verse. During the 1880 s he was probably the most active propagandist for the socialist cause, giving hundreds

William Morris turned from the real world, in which machinery and convention were overtaking sensibility and life, to portray worlds of clear air and water, which are drenched with bursting colourful life. He peopled these worlds with leaders and warlords, robbers and farmers, witches and thralls, heroes and heroines. The water-coloured worlds are based on the experiences of his lifetime: he knew having studied politics, history and craftsmanship, as well as spending his formative years in the countryside of the mid -nineteenth century what changes the absence of The Arts and Crafts Movement refers to the loosely-linked group of craftsmen, artists, designers and architects who aimed to raise the status of the applied arts to that of the fine arts. Largely inspired by William Morris, other key artists in the movement included William de Morgan, Henry Holiday, Walter Crane, the architect and designer Philip Webb and Christopher Whall,

TYPOGRAPHY William Morris

William Morris The Kelmscott Press In 1890 Morris founded the Kelmscott Press in premises near his last home at Kelmscott House in Hammersmith (now the headquarters of the William Morris Society). Morris designed three typefaces for the Press: Golden, Chaucer, and Troy. These were inspired respectively by fifteenth-century Italian and German typography. In all, sixty-six volumes were printed by the Kelmscott Press, the most impressive of which was its magnificent edition of Chaucer which was published in 1896. Morris died at Kelmscott House on 3 October 1896.

William Morris

William Morris’s The Story of Gunnlaug the Worm. Tongue was privately printed for him at the Chiswick Press in a replica of a Caxton typeface. The book was never offered for sale, and Morris did not repeat the experiment, because shortly thereafter he began to design his own types.

William Morris An enlarged photograph of a page in Pliny's Historia naturalis, printed by Jenson in 1476; Morris used this and other similar photographs as an aid in designing his Golden type.

William Morris "I did not copy it slavishly; in fact, my Roman type, especially in the lower case, tends rather more to the Gothic than does Jenson's. " Morris's roman, the Golden type, was often combined with elaborate ornaments which he also designed.

William Morris One of Edward Prince's bills for cutting the Golden type (described here as "English Old Face").

William Morris Emery Walker photographed a lowercase alphabet designed by Morris and had it pasted on this sheet in order to form a passage from Chaucer; then he photographically reduced it and photoengraved the image. This was a very early version of the Troy type.

Troy type William Morris

William Morris Troy type

William Morris An advertisement for the ATF Satanick type, one of many American imitations of Morris's typography.

mordfrt William Morris

jaso n William Morris

William Morris chronicle

William Morris atalanta

chivalry William Morris

cupid William Morris

venüs William Morris

news William Morris

William Morris

rapunzel William Morris

percevyle William Morris

ysambrc William Morris

siguard William Morris

flora William Morris

William Morris WHY DID MORRIS WRITE FANTASY?

William Morris “. . . It is the childlike part of us that produces works of imagination. " ". . . but what Romance means is the capacity for a true conception of history, of making the past part of the present. " William Morris

William Morris "Dreamer of dreams, born out of my due time, Why should I strive to set the crooked straight? Let it suffice me that my murmuring rhyme, Beats with light wing against the ivory gate, Telling a tale not too importunate To those who in the sleepy region stay, Lulled by the singer of an empty day. " Earthly paradise

William Morris "Where, in The Earthly Paradise, pleasure had always seemed an uneasy dream on the edge of a bitter reality, we are (in the prose romances) always on the edge of awakening to the freshness and fulfillment of life. . . This freshness, this sense of growth in the June English countryside, of the continuity of life, is the reality beneath the romance. This is the Morris whom Yeats knew and described as 'the Happiest Earthly paradise of Poets’. . . ”

William Morris Earthly paradise

William Morris Love is enough

William Morris In the spring of 1890 he wrote a directly fantastic romance: The Story Of The Glittering Plain. Serialised initially in four parts, it would be the first book printed by another famous Morris creation: The Kelmscott Press. Books published by the Kelmscott Press (there were to be 53 titles in 66 volumes in the years 1891 to 1898) have been called the most beautiful books ever printed, and the Kelmscott Chaucer is The glittering plain justly famous.

William Morris The glittering plain

William Morris The glittering plain

William Morris Hours later, as you lay the book down and begin your search for the rest of his work, the questions begin who was William Morris? Why did he write such works? Are themes in his work? Did his work alter as he grew older? One central truth is already obvious to you. William Morris was an artist. Ian Covell William Morris : Dreamer of Dreams

William Morris His romantic attachment to the natural world was already forming and evolving. His textiles -furniture, wall paper and fabric designs-- were to become the epitome of 'the organic, ' which was so much a part of his perception of reality. While religiously agnostic, the physical world was forever jolting him by its sheer majesty, giving him what we would now call an almost spiritual 'global sense. '

WALL PAPER William Morris

William Morris & Company’s Shop. Photographed in the 1911. Block-printing chintzes (1900) High-warp tapestry weaving (1900)

William Morris The Daisy pattern was directly inspired by a wallhanging depicted in a 15 th -century manuscript of Froissart’s Chronicles. Morris used similar ‘clumps’ of flowers for embroidery and tile designs of the 1860 s. Daisy (1864)

William Morris This pattern was one of relatively few which Morris used for both wallpapers and printed textiles. As a wallpaper, the sinuous vertical meander is especially prominent, whereas the pattern-structure is more subtly suggested in a draped textile (e. g. as curtain fabric). Marigold was one of the first textiles to be printed on both cotton and silk Marigold (1875)

William Morris drew on his own deep knowledge of British birds, observed in the garden or hedgerow. Since Strawberry Thief was Morris’s first chintz to combine indigo-discharge dyeing and block-printing with red and yellow, he closely supervised its initial production at Merton Abbey. Strawberry Thief Chintz (1883)

William Morris Strawberry Thief Chintz (1883)

William Morris It was one of the first textiles to be printed at Merton Abbey, where Morris & Co. moved its workshop premises at the end of 1881. Brother robbit (1882)

William Morris began the design in September 1883, writing to his daughter Jenny that, although ‘the wet Wandle is not big but small’, he wanted to make the pattern ‘very elaborate and splendid … to honour helpful stream’. Wandle chintz (1883)

Evenlod e William Morris

CARPETS William Morris

William Morris Carpet-knotters. Photographed in the 1890 s.

William Morris His decorating style was revolutionary because it was natural in an age just embracing mass-production and lower standards in quality, color and design. Morris was such a perfectionist about color that for weeks his hands were dyed blue as he sloshed around in the dye vats (I'd have liked to have seen that), searching for the perfect hue. His style is rich but simple, rejecting the opulence of the French, royalist influence on the Victorian, and focusing on the more gothic, medieval side of the era. Morris believed that everything in the home should be beautiful and functional.

William Morris "Vine & Pomegranate" is an ingrain carpet, woven without pile and reversible. Ingrains were used extensively in 19 th and early 20 th century American homes, especially in bedchambers and rooms that did not receive the heaviest wear. Although it was common practice to fit these wall-to-wall, Morris suggested sewing them as squares, allowing a border of wood floor to show around the perimeter of the room. They can be taken out easily for cleaning, and reversed with the dark side up for winter and the light side up for summer. Vine & Pomegranate (1877)

William Morris This is the earliest registered carpet design by Morris, and the pattern was thought to have been lost until it surfaced in the archive of Woodward Grosvenor & Co. Ltd. Axminster weaving is of the heaviest commercial weight, recommended for extra heavy wear in hotel lobbies, and well suited for any residential use. It has a pattern repeat of 14 1/4" with a self match, and the border is 13 1/2" wide. Colors are shades of indigo and grey blue, olive, moss green and ivory. "Poppy" Axminster Carpet (1875)

William Morris This traditional Wilton carpet is woven on narrow 27" looms. It is available as an all over body pattern that can be hand sewn to fit rooms as wall-to-wall carpeting. The pattern repeat is 10. 5" with a self match. Colors are a dark indigo ground with two greens, periwinkle, rose, coral and fawn. Tulip & Lily is one of the best known Arts & Crafts Movement carpets, and it is one of the only 19 th century carpet designs to be kept in Tulip & Lily (1875)

William Morris "Honeysuckle has a splendid color palette of indigo blue (ground), olive, light grey, rose, red, blue and yellow. The design is a classic carpet figure that can be viewed from all directions, and it has a 26" self match repeat. The same Morris borders used for Tulip & Lily have been recolored to match Honeysuckle and are available in widths of 4. 5 and 13. 5 inches. Honeysuckle (1894)

William Morris GLASS & SCULPTURES

William Morris' glass sculptures are part of the permanent collections of many museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Craft Museum, the Chrysler Museum of Art, the Louvre, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris.

William Morris The unique aspect of Morris' work is his treatment of surface texture, achieved by various techniques such as sprinkling powdered glass and minerals onto a blown surface, etching, and acid washing to achieve "ancient" and textural diversity. As well as a master glassblower, William Morris is considered to be a revolutionary and provocative artist, whose work goes beyond mere craftsmanship to touch the Morris' work has been strongly influenced by his interest in archeology and ancient pagan cultures, and addresses the timeless relationship between humans and their environment. His work evokes images from a time when man was more in tune with nature, and is subliminally suggestive of ritual significance. He also acknowledges the influence of Italian artists who have shared their knowledge of techniques for crafting glass, so essential to the realization of Morris' ideas into form.

William Morris

William Morris

William Morris

William Morris

William Morris

William Morris

William Morris

William Morris

William Morris

William Morris

STAINED GLASS William Morris

William Morris The Church of All Saints at Selsley is of particular interest as the stained glass was entirely produced by Morris & Co. and includes designs by Morris, Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Ford Maddox Brown, the architect Philip Webb and others. 7 days

newan g liberty William Morris

PAINTING William Morris

William Morris Queen Guinevere (also known as Iseult) Tate Gallery

April (1863) William Morris

William Morris’s text on the scrolls, ‘ I once a King and chief Now am the tree-bark’s thief, Ever ‘twixt trunk and leaf Chasing the prey. ’ The Woodpecker: (Tapestry) 1888

William Morris Chaucer tile (designed by Morris with D. G. Rossetti the model) [Victoria and Albert Museum]

FURNITURE William Morris

William Morris In 1860, Morris commissioned Philip Webb to design Red House in South London. For his marriage, Morris designed and constructed the famous Red House so named because it was built of red brick, against the fashion of the time. It was sited in an orchard. With friends he began to fill the Red House with specially designed furniture, tapestries, and so on. They later expanded this enterprise and began to produce many items for the public: furniture (for example the Morris Chair), jewelery, stained glass windows and wallpaper. Many of the hand-printed wallpapers are still being made today precisely to the designs of Morris. The work of the Morris Company was a deliberate revolt against what they saw as the 'shoddy' work on the market. The Company's products, then as now, were admired and much sought after, becoming a

William Morris Sussex chairs illustrated in Morris and Co. advertisement

William Morris Armchair adapted by Morris and Co. from traditional pattern

William Morris Furniture [early 1860 s] painted by Morris, Burne. Jones, and others [Victoria and Albert Museum]

William Morris Interior of Wightwick Manor Staffordshire: showing use of Morris furniture, rugs, and textiles

William Morris

William Morris He died at the age of 62. His doctor giving his cause of death as "simply being William Morris and having done more work that most ten men. " He was buried in the Kelmscott Village churchyard.

William Morris "How we live and how we might live”