Floral design

Details

Date: c. 1891
Dimensions: 101.6 x 68
Object Type: design
Material: pencil, ink and watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: A37
Artist: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

John Henry Dearle joined Morris’s employment in 1878 as an assistant in the Oxford Street showroom of Morris & Co., before being transferred to the glass painters’ studio and becoming an apprentice tapestry weaver. He eventually went on to become Art Director of Morris & Co. upon Morris’s death in 1896. After many years of training alongside Morris, Dearle began creating distinctive patterns in his own right. ‘Daffodil’ is one of his most successful early patterns. It combines the strong diagonal repeats favoured by Morris with attractive floral motifs. ‘Daffodil’ was extremely commercially popular and was used in many interiors designed by Morris & Co.

This design was for a printed cotton which was to be created using woodblocks. To the right of the image there is an instruction to the blockmaker. The William Morris Gallery also holds 10 woodblocks for the design.

Details

Date: 1886
Dimensions: 101.6 x 68.6
Object Type: design
Material: watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: A30
Artist: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

One of the more ‘formal’ of Morris’s 1880s wallpapers, ‘Lily and Pomegranate’ resembles some of the historic textiles which Morris studied at the South Kensington Museum. The dotted background is a favourite device of Morris’s , found in both his wallpapers and textiles, and one which he enjoyed painting in his designs. When a friend asked him why he did not hand over such mechanical work to an assistant, Morris replied ‘After taking all the trouble to draw it, do you think I’d be such a fool as not to do the dots?’

Object Type: design

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