William MorrisMarch 24, 1834 – October 3, 1896“English designer, craftsman, poet, and early socialist, whose design for
furniture, fabrics, stained glass, wallpaper, and other decorative arts generated the Arts and Crafts movement in England.”
Background- Born March 24, 1834 in Walthamstow.- Solid middle-class background.- Attended Marlborough College at age of
22.
- Marlborough only serious influence was to turn him from Evangelicalism to Anglo-Catholicism.
“As far as my school instruction went, I think I may fairly say I learned next to nothing there, for indeed next to nothing was taught; but the place is in very beautiful country, thickly scattered over with prehistoric monuments, and I set myself eagerly to studying these and everything else that had any history in it, and so perhaps learnt a good deal.”
Young Lad Morris, at age 23.
Oxford Movement- Influenced by the Oxford Movement, Morris
went to Exeter College, Oxford (1853) to prepare for a career as a clergy-man.
- Oxford Movement: demanded restoration of ceremony and emphasized the importance of service among the poor.
- At Exeter College, Morris met Burne-Jones where they formed a long-lasting friendship.
- Summer of 1855, Morris and Burne-Jones abandoned their plans to join the church.
- Ruskin’s Edinburgh Lectures introduced them to Pre-Raphaelites
- Pre-Raphaelite: direct and uncomplicated depiction of nature of Italian paintings.
- The Return of the Dove to the Ark, by John Everett Millais 1851, was the first Pre-Raphaelites painting Morris and Burne-Jones saw.
- Inspiration and direction in life found in art, not religion like they had first thought.
Architect\Painter- Trip to France had a significant impact
on Morris.- Moved by the power of great Gothic
Cathedrals- Apprenticed with G E Street, gothic
revival architect.- Summer of 1856, Street moved office to
London.- Morris and Burne-Jones became Dante
Gabriel Rossetti’s pupil on an unofficial basis.
- Rossetti persuaded Morris to take up painting rather than architecture.
- Morris had a brief career as a painter. - La Belle Iseult, 1858, Morris’s only
surviving oil painting. (Model: Jane Burden)
- Married Jane Burden in 1859
Interior Decorators and Manufacturers- Morris commissioned Philip
Webb to build the Red House at Bexleyheath.
- During the furnishing and decorating of this house, Morris and his friends came with the idea of an association of “fine art workmen.”
- Firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, Brown, Rossetti, Webb, and Burne-Jones. (later became known as Morris & Co.)
- Began with stained glass, mural decoration, embroidery, painted tiles, and furniture followed by wallpapers and printed and woven fabrics.
- Dedicated to recapturing the spirit and quality of medieval craftsmanship
Arts and Craft Movement- Aesthetic movement of appreciation for decorative
arts- “Morris’s stress on the need for artist to contribute
their talents to the ‘useful arts’ helped to stimulate the Arts and Crafts movement.”
- Revival of artistic craftsmanship.- Became identified with growing international
interest in design, especially with Art Nouveau.- Morris: “I don’t want art for a few, any more than education
for a few, or freedom for a few…”“What business have we with art at all unless all can
share it?”art is the “expression by man of his pleasure in
labour.”“made by the people, for the people, as a happiness
for the maker and the user.”Contradiction: “all art cost time, trouble, and
thought.” Only accessible to a few, luxury of the rich.
Social Responses - INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION- all industrial art was crude, vulgar,
and overloaded with ornament.- Manufacturers enabled to turn out
thousands of cheap articles in the same time and at the same cost as were formerly required for production of one well-made object.
- Skilled craftsmanship replaced by machinery
- First artist to realize how precarious and decayed the social foundations of art had become during the years since the Industrial Revolution.
- Morris was increasingly disturbed by the degradation of the urban poor.
Morris as a Poet- Achieved fame from The Life and Death
of Jason (1867). A romantic narrative.
- Poems on classical and medieval sources, The Earthly Paradise (1868-70).
- First public lecture, The Decorative Arts.
- First collection of lectures, Hopes and Fears of Art.
- ‘Missing’ poem from A Book of Verse. 1870
Wallpaper Design
Marigold 1875 Dove and Rose 1879
Stained-Glass Window
St Peter and St Paul 1865 The Brachet Licking Sir Tristram 1861
Bibliography“Arts and Craft Movement.” Encyclopedia Britannica. . Encyclopedia
Britannica Online. <http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9009722>.“Morris, William.” Encyclopedia Britannica. . Encyclopedia Britannica
Online. <http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9053819>.Pevsner, Nicolaus. Pioneers of Modern Design. New Haven and
London : Yale University Press, 2005.Poulson, Christine. William Morris. London : The Apple Press, 1989.Miele, Chris. Ed. From William Morris: Building Conservation and The
Arts and Crafts cult of Authenticity 1877-1939. New Haven and London : Yale University Press, 2005.
Kruft, Hanno-Walter. The History of Architectural Theory from Vitruvius to the Present. New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 1994,
