ARTIST/ARCHITECT WILLIAM MORRIS

History Of Architecture III – Seminar

WILLIAM MORRIS
 On 24 March 1834,
 Morris was born at Elm House in Essex, England to a wealthy
middle-class family.
 He is known for Wallpapers, Textile design, Fantasy Fiction,
Medievalism, Socialism.
 He cultivated an early interest in books and the natural world.
 He would visit the churches and cathedrals scattered across
Essex with his father, his particular favorites was Canterbury
Cathedral.
 These trips ignited his love of architecture.
 Morris developed the keen interest in medieval history and
architecture while studying at Oxford.
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY IMPLEMENTATION

 HAND- CRAFTED  BLOCK PRINTING IN

 INSPIRATION FROM TEXTILE
NATURAL WORLD  EMBROIDERED…
 REPETITION  MURALS
 MIRRORING  TAPESTRIES

 ASYMMETRIC-IN-  And Various Other

SYMMETRIC INTERIOR DECORATIONS
COMPOSITIONS  PLASTERINGS/EMBELISHME-
-NTS
 WALLPAPERS
Red House - 1860
 Created in collaboration with the architect Philip Webb, many consider this building the jewel in Morris's
crown. The result was a strange and magnificent red brick construction which brought together the pointed
arches of Gothic religious architecture, the gabled roofs of a Tudor mansion, and turrets from a medieval
fairytale. This was not just a house to be lived in, but to be explored and experienced: for Rossetti, it was
"more a poem than a house".
 Everything in the creation and decoration of Red House was carefully considered.
 Perhaps in a nod to Morris's growing socialist principles, the red bricks of working-class housing were
favored over the stone blocks that would have befitted his class status.
 He also abandoned bourgeoise taste by filling the garden with native British trees and flowers - those which
inspired his decorative designs - rather than the exotic plants favored by the upper classes.
 The decoration of the house has become as famous as its architecture, a collaborative endeavor involving
not just Morris and Webb, but all of their artistic friends as well. Apparently, whenever a guest arrived to
view the completed building, they would be invited to assist with its decoration.
 Murals, painted panels and chests, stained-glass windows and textiles: all were created in the spirit of
collective joy and industry that Morris so valued.
 In 1904, the German critic Hermann Muthesius described Red House as "the first house to be conceived and
built as a unified whole, inside and out, the very first example in the history of the modern home". 150
years after its construction, the building, now owned by the National Trust, continues to fascinate and excite
visitors.
Green Dining Room - 1868
 This Green Dining Room (also known as the Morris Room) is one of three
refreshment rooms created for the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and
Albert Museum) during the 1860s.

The individuals chiefly involved in this project were Morris, Philip Webb, and Edward
Burne-Jones.

As the resident architect of the group, Webb designed the window frames, working
with Morris on the floral and geometric designs pricked into the plaster of the ceiling

Burne-Jones painted the paneled frieze along the walls of the room, and, as an
accomplished stained-glass designer, filled the window panels with scenes of medieval
domestic bliss, including the ubiquitous, lissome Pre-Raphaelite beauties.

The patterns inscribed into the green-painted plaster walls were the work of Morris
alone, however.

Olive boughs, raised up in the plaster, wrap around the room in an endless pattern,
punctuated by the splashes of color introduced by flowers and berries. While these
walls were created as reliefs, the designs pre-empt those Morris would later create for
wallpapers and furnishing fabrics, particularly Willow.

 The latter is one of Morris's best-known designs, a simple pattern of intertwined

willow leaves that gives the "unmistakable suggestions of gardens and fields" within a
domestic setting.
OIL ON CANVAS -
La Belle Iseult
1858
Indigo-discharged
and block-printed
cotton- Strawberry
Thief 1883
Wool on Cotton -
Woodpecker Tapestry 1885
 John Gerald’s – Herball
A 16th century reference book about plants and their uses