William Morris tapestry - The tree of life

Main works

As a writer, he is known for "The Earthly Paradise" in 1870, "The Pilgrims of Hope" in 1885, and "News from Nowhere" in 1890. As a designer, he created notable patterns such as "Acanthus," "Snakeshead," "Woodpecker," "Kennet," "Bullerwood," "Seaweed," and "Daffodile."

Artistic movements

Pre-Raphaelitism and Arts and Crafts, of which he was the most active representative.

Inspiration, influence

The Italian Primitives (Fra Angelico) and medieval art mark and influence his work. But it is above all what he hated (Victorian bourgeois taste) that created part of his path. Morris believed that the Industrial Revolution had standardized objects for the sake of profits, depriving them of creativity and quality... A fight that still finds echoes in our modern era!

His contemporaries

Jane Burden, the favorite model of the Pre-Raphaelites, who became his wife and the mother of his two daughters. John Ruskin, writer and art critic, who led a whole reflection on the dangers of restoring architecture, which by modernizing it made it lose the essence of its original creation.

To keep in mind

William Morris is hard to categorize because although he was a writer and poet, he was also a designer and printer! As such, he designed, for example, typographies that left a mark and influenced the publishing industry of the 20th century. His political commitment, as he is the originator of the creation of the English Socialist Party, is also an important, if not essential part of his life and also influenced his creative work. The modernity of his vision, especially regarding ecology or gender equality, is also noteworthy, as it was rare in the Victorian era. Morris's influence on art in the broadest sense was truly acknowledged more than a century after the beginning of his work, as this influence took on various and lasting forms.

To go further

If his heart beat to the rhythm of equality (Marx's writings greatly contributed to his worldview), especially financial, how can we not see in his career as a businessman an obvious ambivalence. Thus his works, produced in very small numbers with noble materials, were exclusively reserved for a wealthy audience...