Artist · 12 prints
Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo Prints
About Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo
Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo (1851–1942) was a British architect and designer. He trained in the office of the Gothic Revival architect James Brooks, attended John Ruskin's drawing school in Oxford in 1873, and travelled to Italy with Ruskin the following year. In 1874 he opened his own architectural practice in London, and in 1882 he founded the Century Guild with Herbert Horne, a group of artists making furniture, textiles, wallpaper, metalwork and stained glass. He later designed houses in Essex.
Mackmurdo is remembered for one remarkable design: the title page of his book Wren's City Churches (1883), with its tall, swaying plant forms. The historian Nikolaus Pevsner called it the first traceable work of Art Nouveau, years before the style took hold on the Continent. The Century Guild also published a magazine, The Hobby Horse, from 1884. Mackmurdo gave a large collection of Guild work to the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, London, which holds an important collection of it.
Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo prints: reproductions of Arts and Crafts pattern and ornament designs by the British designer Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo and his Century Guild. The collection includes Artichoke, Birds and Squirrels (1880), Wren's City Churches (1883), Cromer Bird (1884), Tulips and Vine and Grapes.
This selection focuses on Mackmurdo's designs for wallpaper and textiles: repeating patterns of acanthus, ivy, bay leaf, roses, tulips and vines, with birds and squirrels in some designs. Most are ornament plates with flowing plant forms and a limited palette. The Wren's City Churches cover shows the tall, swaying stems that link his work to early Art Nouveau.
The pattern designs suit hallways, dining rooms, libraries and studies, and they hang well in pairs or as a set of three. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with low-glare acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
![Acanthus [design] by Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo — Pale grey acanthus leaves scroll across an olive ground](http://9artprints.com/cdn/shop/files/clean-main_3fab6b4a-193c-486e-b3f3-411ea0126be5.jpg?v=1790026737&width=2544)
![Tulips [textile design] by Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo — Mirrored cream tulips scroll down a mustard speckled ground](http://9artprints.com/cdn/shop/files/clean-main_01976146-4a7a-4228-92a3-01f46f055d40.jpg?v=1790153111&width=3008)
