William Morris was a artist, designer, writer, libertarian, socialist. He was also a major contributor to reviving traditional textile arts and methods of production, and one of the founders of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings , now a statutory element in the preservation of historic buildings in the UK.
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By the middle of the century Ruskin, following the tracks of Thomas Carlyle, had created a certain discipleship, and were receiving the unbounded admiration of young men of fervent and poetic temperament, who were probably drawn at first by the splendid rhetoric of Past and Present and Modern Painters without examining very closely their social implications. Chief among the admirers of Ruskin was William Morris, his junior by fifteen years. Morris was just entering Oxford as Ruskin was publishing the Stones of Venice , the book that first kindled in Morris his social beliefs, to which he always referred as the first statement of the doctrine that art is the expression of man's pleasure in labour. He reprinted the chapter On the Nature of the Gothic forty years after its first publication as one of the first products of the Kelmscott Press, to stand in testimony of the abiding influence of the master-thinker. Of narrower range than Ruskin, but more intensive in his own direction, Morris gave his life to the determination of the relation between art and labour, and made himself, therefore, the chief exponent of the idea of the Arts and Crafts. Ruskin theorised; Morris demonstrated: henceforth the problem of other workers is that of extension and inclusion.
William Morris (for the design) and Morris & Co. (for the production), Strawberry-Thief , 1883. Pattern for printed fabric, block-printed and indigo discharge on cotton, 60 x 95.2 cm. Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
William Morris (for the design) and Morris & Co. (for the production), Tulip and Willow , 1873 (design) and 1883 (printing).
William Morris , “Wallflower”, design. Private collection.
“Poet, artist, manufacturer, and socialist”－ these terms describe the life-work of Morris in in its three-fold aspect of artist, craftsman, and social reformer. The history of handicraft shows no life more eventful than Morris‘s, nor more filled with notable achievements. As a boy his hands were always active, net-making being a favourite diversion. It was foreseen that he would take up the pencil and the engrave’s tool at the earliest opportunity of instruction, although he was matriculated at Oxford for holy orders. His college chum, Burne-Jones－ also intended for the church, but even then practicing the art through which he was to become famous－ taught him drawing and engraving. The two artists were soon considering the advisability of giving up the church and devoting their lives to art－ the one aspiring to be a painter, the other an architect. To architecture forthwith Morris turned his attention, and while he never worked professionally as an architect, his studies at this time were of immense service in clarifying his thought and concentrating his energies. While in the office of Mr. G. E. Street, and pursuing his studies in architecture, he began the practice of more than one handicraft－ clay-modelling, wood and stone carving, manuscript illumination, window-designing and embroidery, and these occupations were soon to fill his days even to the exclusion of painting, which Rossetti had taught him, and of poetry, which was his native expression.
John S, (2012-6), The Photographer's Eye,
Oscar Lovell Triggs, (2009), Arts and Crafts movement
The Photographer's Eye －John Szarkowski
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