Artist · 61 prints
William Morris Prints
About William Morris
William Morris was an English designer, poet and craftsman, born on 24 March 1834 in Walthamstow, near London, and died on 3 October 1896 in Hammersmith. He went to Oxford to study for the Church, met his lifelong friend Edward Burne-Jones there, and turned instead to art. In 1861 he and his friends set up Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., a firm making hand-crafted furniture, stained glass and textiles, which he ran alone as Morris & Co. from 1875.
Morris is best known for wallpapers and fabrics drawn from English gardens and hedgerows: twining stems, leaves, flowers and birds repeated in dense, balanced patterns. His Strawberry Thief design, registered in 1883, was printed at Merton Abbey, the works he took over in 1881. He also founded the Kelmscott Press in 1891, which produced its illustrated Chaucer in 1896, and he was an active socialist. His ideas gave rise to the Arts and Crafts movement, and his work is held by the V&A and the Met.
William Morris prints: reproductions of the wallpaper and textile designs William Morris created for his firm between the 1860s and the 1890s. The collection includes Trellis (1862), Pimpernel (1876), Artichokes, Birds and Squirrels (1879), Bramble and Squirrels (1882) and Willow Bough (1887).
This selection concentrates on Morris's repeating botanical patterns, with honeysuckle, chrysanthemum, larkspur, tulip and willow designs, several in more than one colourway. It also includes original design drawings such as Anemone and Kennet, patterns with birds and squirrels, and a few works from his studio and circle, including John Henry Dearle's Compton and Cherwell and a wallpaper design by Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo.
The dense, balanced patterns suit living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms, and the softer greens and blues work well in kitchens and hallways. Two colourways of the same design hang well side by side. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
