William Morris - Father of Modern Design (Essay No1)

    Essay structure
part 1 – briefly about Arts and Crafts movement;
part 2 – briefly about Pre-Raphaelites;
part 3 – William Morris – arts and crafts in his life.
 

   In this essay I will briefly write about the great man, about a founder one of the biggest movement in art. His name William Morris, great poet, artist, the man who was inspired by socialism, some people call him father of modern design. I will write who and what inspirit this great man to choose his road, about first arts and crafts company. But first of all, I want give you some short information about this movement, about Arts and Crafts Movement.

           Arts and Crafts Movement
   The Arts and Crafts Movement was founded in 1880 and was popular to 1910. This movement caught in his stream all kind of architecture and domestic design. For design artists used simply forms, truth materials.
   The most famous designers in this movement was: William Morris – artist, philosopher, poet and designer, Charles Robert Ashbee – English arts and crafts designer, most of he worked with metal production, Christopher Dresser – this man tried to put nature aspects in to design, Gustav Stickley – creator of the “Craftsman magazine”, Charles Francis Annesley Voysey – English architect, furniture and textile designer. This all people made basics of modern design movement.
          Pre-Raphaelites

    The term Pre-Raphaelite we can break on two sections – art and literature, because its two different movements. Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood included avant-garde painters, the painters who had some connection with Ruskin. Poets, who had some connection with artists from this brotherhood was influenced by this movement. That was poets like Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christiana Rossetti, Georg Meredith, Algernon Charles Swinburne and of course William Morris. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed in 1848 by Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Name of brotherhood was taken with idea to continued paintings of artist before Raphael period. William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones formed Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in Oxford.
   Pre-Raphaelitism was continued into the early 20^th century before becoming outmoded in 1920s.
           
           William Morris – arts and crafts in his life
   William Morris (1834 - 1896) was born in Walthamstow, on March 24, 1834. His family had nine children, he was third. First his education he get in small private school, after that school he finished Marlborough College in 1851.In 1852 William Morris went in to the Oxford college. This college was one of the big changes in his life, second big change was meeting with Edward Burn-Jones in Oxford (one of the greatest Pre-Raphaelite artist). In Oxford he studied theology and he was a hard socialism ideologist. He always was ruled by socialism philosophy and he always tried to put this philosophy in to his work and art. Other big change was made by Pre-Raphaelite movement, this movement put him to his road in art. In Oxford Morris met with a beautiful model – Jane Burden and in 1859 they married. Jane was a one of Rossetti models.

After two years he decide to build his first architectural project, a house for himself , home of the Arts and Crafts Movement – Red House, design for this house made by Philip Webb, today it’s museum of Arts and Crafts Movement. In this year Morris with his Pre-Raphaelite friends formed “Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co”. That was first design firm in Britain and beginning of new movement in design world, it was beginning of Arts and Crafts Movement. Morris company didn’t use any machine in their production, all handmade. In their works they used animals and organic forms, for example vine forms. This company produced many kind of production for home, it’s include metal décor, wallpapers, stained glass, furniture, tiles and many others. With work in company helped him his wife Jane, with her sister, they did embroideries.
   In 1875 “Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co.” was ‘broke’ and William Morris decided to found new company – “Morris and Company”.

All control of company was in his hands. This new company was more focused on pattern and textiles develop.
   In 1884 Morris was all taken by socialism ideology. Most of all Morris and socialism connected one think it was Socialist League. When socialism in Britain was in beginning the most influence socialist was H. M. Hydman. Together with him, Morris published his “Art and Socialism” and in this year, was founded Socialist League. In this league he was until 1889 year. He decide left league, when control was captured by anarchists. Another think, why he left league was his new company, she grew every day and with company grew hard work.
   In design Morris count every smaller think and this inspired him to create his own type in typography. In 1891 he founded Kelmskott Press. The most beautiful and well thought book was Kelmscott Chaucer, illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones. This book was published in 1896 and on 3 October of this year William Morris died.
    William Morris was a hard worker men and strong person, ruled by socialism. After his death his doctor said: “the disease is simply having done more work than most ten men”. Idea create something new and more beautiful always guide him. Morris done a lot of work in his life, his artistic and poet talents always put him above other his contemporaries. Other artists use his works for inspiration, for example Charles Robert Ashbee. I think Arts and Crafts it’s strong movement because all his basics we used today in modern design.

Reference list

Books:

Mackail, J. W. (2008) The life of William Morris. Amazon [Online]. Available at: http://www.amazon.com/Life-William-Morris-J-Mackail/dp/1443715646 (Accessed: 26 April 2010 )

Thompson, E. P. (1988) William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary. Amazon [Online]. Available at: http://www.amazon.com/William-Morris-Romantic-Revolutionary-Thompson/dp/0804715092 (Accessed: 26 April 2010)

Cary, E. L. (1902) William Morris, poet, craftsman, socialist. Archive [Online]. Available at: http://www.archive.org/details/williammorrispo00carygoog  (Accessed: 26 April 2010)

Web pages:

William Morris Society in the United States (2010) The William Morris Society. Available at: http://www.morrissociety.org/  (Accessed: 26 April 2010)

Antique-Marks (2010)  Antique Marks. Available at: http://www.antique-marks.com/arts-and-crafts.html   (Accessed: 27 April 2010)

Magic Web Solutions (no date) The Art Industri Group. Available at: http://www.artmovements.co.uk/preraphaelites.htm (Accessed: 27 April 2010)

Walker Greenbank Group (no date) Morrsi & Co. Available at: http://www.william-morris.co.uk/history.aspx?P=1 (Accessed: 27 April 2010)

The Victorian Web (2010) The Victorian Web. Available at: http://www.victorianweb.org/ (Accessed: 27 April 2010)

 Images:

Neurotic Poets (no date) La Ghirlandata. [Online] Available at: http://www.neuroticpoets.com/rossetti/image/ghirlandata/ (Accessed: 27 April 2010)

Andrew Butler (2003) Red House. [Online]. Available at: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-redhouse/ (Accessed: 27 April 2010)

Echostains Blog (2009) William Morris snakeshead. [Online] Available at: http://echostains.wordpress.com/2009/03/ (Accessed: 28 April 2010)

Essential Art (no date) William Morris – Garden of Delight. [Online] Available at: http://www.essentialart.com/acatalog/William_Morris_Garden_of_Delight.html (Accessed: 27 April 2010)

Artist Quote of the Day (2008) Happy Birthday William Morris. [Online] Available at: http://artistquoteoftheday.wordpress.com/2008/03/ (Accessed: 27 April 2010)

Videos:

Wlliam Morris (no date) William Morris. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=William+Morris&aq=f (Accessed: 27 April 2010)