William Morris — @morris
Xibit360 Curated Exhibition · Curated by Xibit360
William Morris believed that beauty belonged in every home. This room gathers his hand block-printed wallpapers, from Trellis and Daisy, among the first he issued in 1864, to Willow Bough of 1887 — patterns of garden flowers, fruit, birds and branches that are still printed today — together with his own working design for Wreath, drawn in pencil and gouache, with his handwritten notes still on the sheet. From the open-access collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, with the design from the Art Gallery of South Australia via Wikimedia Commons; every image is in the public domain.
William Morris — 1861
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Fruit (or Pomegranate)
William Morris — 1861
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
William Morris — 1864
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Daisy
William Morris — 1864
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
William Morris — 1864
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Trellis
William Morris — 1864
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
William Morris — 1872
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Jasmine
William Morris — 1872
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
William Morris — 1872
Collection: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (via Wikimedia Commons) · CC0 · Source image
Branch
William Morris — 1872
Collection: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (via Wikimedia Commons) · CC0 · Source image
William Morris — 1873
Collection: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (via Wikimedia Commons) · CC0 · Source image
Vine
William Morris — 1873
Collection: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (via Wikimedia Commons) · CC0 · Source image
William Morris — 1874
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Willow
William Morris — 1874
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
William Morris — 1875
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Larkspur
William Morris — 1875
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
William Morris — 1875
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Marigold
William Morris — 1875
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
William Morris — 1876
Collection: Art Gallery of South Australia (via Wikimedia Commons) · Public Domain · Source image
Design for Wreath wallpaper
William Morris — 1876
Collection: Art Gallery of South Australia (via Wikimedia Commons) · Public Domain · Source image
William Morris — 1877
Collection: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (via Wikimedia Commons) · CC0 · Source image
Chrysanthemum
William Morris — 1877
Collection: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (via Wikimedia Commons) · CC0 · Source image
William Morris — 1880
Collection: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (via Wikimedia Commons) · CC0 · Source image
Acorn
William Morris — 1880
Collection: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (via Wikimedia Commons) · CC0 · Source image
William Morris — 1884
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Wild Tulip
William Morris — 1884
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
William Morris — 1885
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Pink and Rose
William Morris — 1885
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
William Morris — 1887
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Willow Bough
William Morris — 1887
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
An exhibition Xibit360 made from public-domain works. It is not affiliated with the artist or with the collections credited.
Credits
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Collection: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (via Wikimedia Commons) · CC0 · Source image
Collection: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (via Wikimedia Commons) · CC0 · Source image
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Collection: Art Gallery of South Australia (via Wikimedia Commons) · Public Domain · Source image
Collection: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (via Wikimedia Commons) · CC0 · Source image
Collection: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (via Wikimedia Commons) · CC0 · Source image
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source image
William Morris (1834–1896) was an English designer, poet, craftsman and socialist, and the leading figure of the Arts and Crafts movement. Rejecting the shoddy goods of industrial Britain, he founded a decorating firm in 1861 — later Morris & Co. — that produced wallpapers, textiles, stained glass and furniture made by hand to the highest standards. His patterns of flowers, birds and trailing foliage, drawn from the English countryside and medieval art, remain in production today. In his last years he founded the Kelmscott Press, reviving the art of the printed book.
Portrait: Frederick Hollyer, 1887 · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
