William Morris | ChasingART

“The past is not dead, it is living in us, and will be alive in the future which we are now helping to make.”
William Morris

In my June 22^nd post, William Morris, along with soon-to-be life-long friend, Edward Burne-Jones, entered Exeter College at Oxford determined to become Anglican clergymen. It wasn’t long before they both gave up this idea to devote their energies on social reform. William had two ideas in mind: 1) to become an architect and 2) to launch a magazine that would include poetry, short stories, and social articles. In 1856, both ideas came to fruition. He was accepted as a pupil at the office of George Edmund Street, an English Gothic revival architect. The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, at his expense, came out on New Year’s Day of the same year. William gave up his editorship position after the first issue. Even though the articles were noteworthy, the magazine lost momentum in its first and final year. Out of this venture, William became friends with one of the contributors: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. This meeting was to have great significance for both men. Continue reading →

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
William Morris

William Morris (March 24, 1834 – October 3, 1896) was brilliant, rich, spoiled and somewhat temperamental. Anyone inviting him over for dinner would agonize over the meal arrangements, given his penchant for hurling food out of the window if not prepared to his liking or high standards. But minor eccentricities aside, he was a gift to the world. A poet, writer, architect, painter, William Morris is credited as being one of the most important pioneers of Art Nouveau.

William Morris was passionate about mediaeval times. At age four, he was reading Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley Novels (when most children are at the “see Spot run” level). His father supported his dreams by giving him a miniature suit of armour to wear and a gallant pony to ride on his knightly quests into the depths of the nearby Epping Forest. These outdoor forays forged within him a deep attachment to forests, gardens, flowers and birds, which would be recurring themes in his art, poetry and fiction. His wallpaper and fabric designs transformed interior decoration.

William Morris, along with John Ruskin, the influential British art critic, were the originators of the new decorative art movement. Ruskin embraced art and beauty with religious zeal; Morris envisioned an idealized medievalism which was heavily influenced by Tennyson’s Arthurian poems. Their lives were as complex as the times in which they lived.

In 1853 at age 19, William Morris entered Exeter College at Oxford, with the idea of becoming an Anglican clergyman. There he first met his closest lifelong friend, Edward Burne-Jones, who would become one of the greatest of the Pre-Raphaelite (more on this in later posts) artists. Recall that Edward Burne-Jones mentored Aubrey Beardsley. Creativity does not exist in a vacuum – it thrives within a context of diversity and feeds on curiosity.

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William Morris, Cray, 1884

Printed Cotton, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

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