William Morris

Portrait, William Morris


William Morris was an English textiles designer, artist and writer who was very closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts movement.  He was born in 1834 and died in1896.
Morris founded a design firm with the artist Eduard Burne-Jones and the poet Dante Rossetti and was extremely influenced by the decoration of the houses and churches of the 20th century. 

Several years after Morris got married he challenged himself with two tasks.  The first was to design and build a house for himself and his wife Jane and the other to start a firm of decorators and reinstating decoration as a fine art.  The house he designed and named 'Red House' was designed for himself and his wife.  Inside everything was designed by Morris and his wife.  All ceiling paintings and wall paintings were done by himself and Jane.  His furniture was painted by Morris and Rossetti and the stained glasses was done by Burne-Jones.

Red House in Kent

The strange thing about this house is that it has no wallpaper or printed or woven fabrics or any carpets which Morris and his firm specialized in.

Morris firm,  Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co, took on various skills like stained glass, glass-work, metal-work, paper hangings, murals and carpets.  The decoration of churches was the most important for the firm. 

Today Morris's works are still very influential.  We can see influences of his textile patterns in many houses.  He was all about craftsmanship and really tried to encourage people to move away from mass production.  He encouraged originality and hand made designs as to him they were much more valuable than those designs made by machines.