William Morris: Weaving Beauty into the Everyday

One of the most innovative voices in the history of English design, William Morris went against the grain of Victorian-era tradition to champion the beauty and importance of hand-craftsmanship. Revolting against the Industrial Age, Morris’s ideas became foundational to the Arts & Crafts Movement. He expressed his remarkable artistic skill across various media but was best known for his textile designs.

Join us as we weave together the fascinating strands of William Morris’s life and career. In addition to tracing landmarks associated with Morris, we’ll also explore some of his most iconic designs to inspire us all to further embrace Arts & Crafts aesthetics. 

The Making of William Morris: The Early Years

Born and raised in the Southeast of England, the young William Morris attended Exeter College, Oxford, from 1852. His initial focus was in the field of theology. During his studies, however, he found particular appeal in the art and design of the medieval era, a passion that he shared with his friend, Edward Coley Burne-Jones, whom he met while at school. Burne-Jones in turn introduced Morris to his social network, including Dante Gabriele Rossetti who along with his artistic associates had introduced England to Pre-Raphaelite painting in 1849.

This Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was similarly enthused by the return to artistic ideals established before the Renaissance. Accordingly, Morris’s ideological kinship with a circle equally inspired to explore the artistry of the medieval past proved the catalyst for his soon-to-be groundbreaking design philosophy. This approach blossomed over the 1850s thanks to Morris’ additional affinities to the writing of art critic John Ruskin, who argued for the importance of Gothic-era design and also proposed reforms to the rising practice of industrialized production and elitism in interior design. Fueled by these luminaries, Morris first pursued these themes through writing. This passion for literature and poetry would endure throughout his career, but as the decade progressed Morris’s focus fell more directly on the realm of design.  

Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company

In 1861, Morris and his colleagues formed “Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.”, along with friends Charles Faulkner and Peter Paul Marshall. The mission of their company was to develop a decorative arts line that revived medieval-inspired methods and artistry and celebrated affordability over affluence. Core to these designs was an emphasis on hand-craftsmanship as well as a balance between beauty and utility. They debuted a full line of creations – including, furnishings, textiles, and stained glass – the next year at the 1862 London International Exhibition of Industry and Art to a highly receptive audience. That same year Morris debuted his first wallpaper in the “Trellis” pattern, which set the stage for an enduring production of wallpapers and textiles.

Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. rapidly grew in acclaim such that within a decade their aesthetic had begun to transform Victorian-era interiors across the country. The ornate furnishings that once filled the era’s sitting rooms were slowly replaced with simpler yet striking designs that were both functional and fashionable.

Monumental Morris: The Later Years

While his firm was taking off, Morris experienced increasing pressures within his friend group, particularly with Rossetti whose entanglements with Morris’ romantic partners caused permanent rifts. These conflicts came to a head in the early 1870s when Morris assumed the sole directorship of the company and renamed it “Morris & Co.” By this time Morris was virtually a household name, and his interior designs graced royal residences such as St. James Palace.

During this career phase, Morris’ designs turned more directly to the realm of textiles and wallpapers, and for the rest of the decade he conjured some of his most iconic patterns. At the same time, Morris leant into his initial anti-elitist inclinations, such that in his final years he split his time between his studio and serving as a social activist. The capstone of his career was the establishment of Kelmscott Press in 1891, a testament to his enduring commitment to writing and translation work throughout his career. The elaborate imagery imprinted by the press gave Morris more space to apply his inspired designs up until he died in 1896.

William Morris’s Core Design Principles

Morris’ revolutionary contributions to design history stemmed from his rejection of period aesthetics to instead embrace the styles and methods that had been popular in medieval times. Specifically, his ethos revolved around:

Nature

Many of Morris’ creations were based upon motifs taken directly from the natural world. Delicate botanical studies and rich organic arabesques dominated many of his textile and wallpaper designs.

Hand Craftsmanship

Disgusted by the expanding influence of industrialization, Morris advocated for the beauty of the handmade. He believed hand-hewn carved furniture and woven fabrics, for instance, showcased the skill and simplified beauty of age-old techniques.

Material Celebration

Going together with his emphasis on craftsmanship, Morris appreciated the striking material properties of his production. From the elegance of woodgrain to the lustrous colors of stained glass pieces, Morris showcased the inherent appeal in every material with which he worked.

Collecting Works by William Morris

The legacy of William Morris lives on in numerous original examples, many of which are housed in major museum collections. Such is the case, for example,Manage Site with The Forest Tapestry (1887; Victoria & Albert Museum), which features a menagerie of animals ensconced in the curling foliage of a dense forest. The later licensing of many of Morris’ designs, however, resulted in reproductions of his works that makes collecting original, authentic examples more of a challenge. 

A prime illustration of these licensing limitations can be found in his wallpaper motifs. In 1881, Morris debuted his incredibly complex “Strawberry Thief” pattern that soon turned into one of his most successful wallpapers.  This design was inspired by the birds who he watched stealing berries from his window at Kelmscott Manor (home of the Kelmscott Press), and the resulting pattern required a complex printing technique that made it one of the most expensive available to consumers at the time. Today, this pattern and many others are under the control of Sanderson Design Group and are produced using modern technology. While this company seeks to uphold the same quality standards as those mandated in Morris’ day, they are modern reproductions that don’t hold the same historical value as original samples might. 

Although challenging to find, original Morris works can still be discovered on the market. In 2023, for example, a splendid example of Morris’ stained glass work appeared at a Christie’s sale. This three-window stained glass work entitled, “The Poets” (Christie’s lot), was created in collaboration with Burne on commission for textile maker Charles Hastings and featured the likenesses of Dante, Homer, and Chaucer, each identified with scrolling neo-Gothic script and set against a tiled botanical background.

Perhaps the richest field for accessible Morris original works comes from his printed books. Morris’ efforts to establish the Kelmscott Press in the later years of his life stand as a testament to his lifelong love of literature, and the books the press produced exude the same brilliance as Morris’s work in other media. Such beauty can be seen in Morris’ 1892 News from Nowhere as well as the 1896 editions of both The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer and Thomas Malory’s The Well at World’s End. Each page of these latter two editions reveals Morris’ woodcut prints in collaboration with Burne-Jones who provided the accompanying illustrations. They also offer a window into Morris’ world, as books like News from Nowhere included a frontispiece illustration of his Kelmscott home. At the same time, these bound books that showcase such historicizing techniques reflected modern societal concerns, making them a timeless collectors item at auction today.

Making the Most of William Morris’ Legacy

In addition to the treasured examples of his work that live on today in public and private collections around the globe – including the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, London, that is housed in his childhood home – William Morris changed the direction of contemporary design practice. The timeless appeal of his aesthetics undoubtedly contributed to the the Arts & Crafts Movement – a term first introduced in 1887 yet clearly inspired by his work – and has resulted in the constant presence of his designs in various applications. Furthermore, his emphasis on attention to design and craftsmanship helped to fuel museum collections like those of Cooper Hewitt that celebrate design history, and his demands for ethical and sustainable design practices are ever more relevant in our contemporary world.