Ladies' Guild Meeting - July 2010
On July 7th our speaker was Helen while Dave was in charge of the slides. Helen’s subject was William Morris; the arts and crafts inspirational name which has a firm place in our heritage. This evening made it clear that Morris had many talents and firm ideas about art, design and science.
We first saw a picture of Morris who appeared as an affluent Victorian gentleman and heard that he was born in Walthamstow in March 1834. His father later purchased Woodford Hall, a large estate on the edge of Epping Forest, in 1840. William enjoyed the privileges of a wealthy family which allowed him to ride his pony around the forest dressed in a suit of armour. William, from a family of nine children, was obviously very able. He read Walter Scott before he was six. As a young adult, he went to Oxford where he met Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The three artists formed a group called the Brotherhood, taking the history, ritual and architecture of Medieval Times as their inspiration. They admired John Ruskin, who found the arts of the day to be “servants of the industrial age.” His family wanted him to enter the church but he decided to become an architect. However, this enthusiasm waned because he was told his drawing was not good enough. He then decided to be an artist, inspired by his friend Rossetti, but he was not of the same quality when painting portraits as shown by the portrait he painted of Jane, the lady he loved. This compared badly with a portrait of Jane painted by Rossetti who had engaged her as a model, also asking her mother to attend the sittings as chaperone. From Anglican priest to architect, then artist and poet, William found his true vocation when he realised that the pictures he produced had intricate designs in the background. He married Jane, bought a house and set about decorating it to his own taste which meant hiring true craftsmen to make furniture and decorating the walls and furniture himself. He found his talents included fabric, wallpaper, tapestry and stained glass window designs.
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company, (William and his friends) changed public taste with their designs. They worked on the Red House in Upton (1859), the Armoury and Tapestry Room in St James’s Palace (1866) and the Dining Room in the Victoria and Albert Museum (1867). This partnership ended in 1875, Morris and Company was formed and the rest is a lasting legacy to the British School of Design. These designs persist, many are still used and many of the beautiful slides we saw were familiar to us. Morris believed that all objects should be functional and beautiful.
William Morris had strong political beliefs. He supported Gladstone’s Liberal Party for a while but became a Socialist in 1883. He wrote books, sold literature on street corners, addressed meetings and generally longed for Utopia. His book “News From Nowhere” tells a story of a man who falls asleep and wakes to be in a future where all are free, equal and healthy. Morris had two daughters, one of whom, May, followed him to be a designer. Some of her work was sold under the company name.
We heard the story of a British Institution and a man who worked for a better future for everyone with his designs and his desire for a better world. We were impressed by Helen’s knowledge and fluent delivery of the talk without any notes.