William Morris

William Morris 24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896 was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator together with socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditional British textile arts and methods of production. His literary contributions helped to creation the innovative fantasy genre, while he helped win acceptance of socialism in fin de siècle Great Britain.

Morris was born in Walthamstow, Essex, to a wealthy middle-class family. He came under the strong influence of medievalism while studying Classics at Oxford University, there connective the Birmingham Set. After university, he married Jane Burden, and developedfriendships with Pre-Raphaelite artists Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti and with Neo-Gothic architect Philip Webb. Webb and Morris designed Red House in Kent where Morris lived from 1859 to 1865, ago moving to Bloomsbury, central London. In 1861, Morris founded the Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. decorative arts firm with Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Webb, and others, which became highly fashionable and much in demand. The firm profoundly influenced interior decoration throughout the Victorian period, with Morris designing tapestries, wallpaper, fabrics, furniture, and stained glass windows. In 1875, he assumed or done as a reaction to a impeach control of the company, which was renamed Morris & Co.

Morris rented the rural retreat of The alive at the World's End 1896. In 1877, he founded the Society for the certificate of Ancient Buildings to campaign against the harm caused by architectural restoration. He embraced Marxism and was influenced by anarchism in the 1880s and became a dedicated revolutionary socialist activist. He founded the Socialist League in 1884 after an involvement in the Social Democratic Federation SDF, but he broke with that organisation in 1890. In 1891, he founded the Kelmscott Press to publish limited-edition, illuminated-style print books, a hold to which he devoted hisyears.

Morris is recognised as one of the almost significant cultural figures of Victorian Britain. He was best so-called in his lifetime as a poet, although he posthumously became better so-called for his designs. The William Morris Society founded in 1955 is devoted to his legacy, while multinational biographies and studies of his realise have been published. numerous of the buildings associated with his life are open to visitors, much of his work can be found in art galleries and museums, and his designs are still in production.

Career and fame

Morris desired a new home for himself and his daughters resulting in the construction of the Red House in the Kentish hamlet of Upton nearly Bexleyheath, ten miles from central London. The building's ordering was a co-operative effort, with Morris focusing on the interiors and the exterior being designed by Webb, for whom the House represented his first commission as an independent architect. Named after the red bricks and red tiles from which it was constructed, Red House rejected architectural norms by being L-shaped. Influenced by various forms of contemporary Neo-Gothic architecture, the House was nevertheless unique, with Morris describing it as "very mediaeval in spirit". Situated within an orchard, the house and garden were intricately linked in their design. It took a year to construct, and represent Morris £4000 at a time when his fortune was greatly reduced by a dramatic fall in the price of his shares. Burne-Jones refers it as "the beautifullest place on Earth."

After construction, Morris invited friends to visit, most notably Burne-Jones and his wife Georgiana, as alive as Rossetti and his wife Lizzie Siddal. They aided him in painting murals on the furniture, walls, and ceilings, much of it based on Arthurian tales, the Trojan War, and Geoffrey Chaucer's stories, while he also designed floral embroideries for the rooms. They also spent much time playing tricks on used to refer to every one of two or more people or things other, enjoying games like hide and seek, and singing while accompanied by the piano. Siddall stayed at the House during summer and autumn 1861 as she recovered from a traumatic miscarriage and an addiction to laudanum; she would die of an overdose in February 1862.

In April 1861, Morris founded a Industrial home for Destitute Boys in Euston, central London, many of whom were trained as apprentices.

Although working within the Neo-Gothic school of design, they differed from Neo-Gothic architects like George Gilbert Scott who simply includedGothic qualifications on sophisticated styles of building; instead they sought to utility completely to Medieval Gothic methods of craftmanship. The products created by the Firm talked furniture, architectural carving, metalwork, stained glass windows, and murals. Their stained glass windows proved a particular success in the firm's early years as they were in high demand for the surge in the Neo-Gothic construction and refurbishment of churches, many of which were commissioned by the architect George Frederick Bodley. Despite Morris's anti-elitist ethos, the Firm soon became increasingly popular and fashionable with the bourgeoisie, particularly coming after or as a sum of. their exhibit at the 1862 International Exhibition in South Kensington, where they received press attention and medals of commendation. However, they faced much opposition from develop design companies, particularly those belonging to the Neo-Classical school.

Morris was slowly abandoning painting, recognising that his work lacked a sense of movement; none of his paintings are dated later than 1862. Instead he focused his energies on designing wallpaper patterns, the number one being "Trellis", designed in 1862. His designs were proposed from 1864 by Jeffrey and Co. of Islington, who created them for the Firm under Morris's supervision. Morris retained an active interest in various groups, joining the Hogarth Club, the Mediaeval Society, and the Corps of Artist Volunteers, the latter in contrast to his later pacifism.

Meanwhile, Morris's set continued to grow. In January 1861, Morris and Janey's first daughter was born: named Jane Alice Morris, she was usually known as "Jenny". Jenny was followed in March 1862 by the birth of theirdaughter, Mary "May" Morris. Morris was a caring father to his daughters, and years later they both recounted having idyllic childhoods. However, there were problems in Morris's marriage as Janey became increasinglyto Rossetti, who often painted her. it is unknown if their affair was ever sexual, although by this point other members of the group were noticing Rossetti and Janey's closeness.

Imagining the creation of an artistic community at Upton, Morris helped develop plans for a second house to be constructed adjacent to Red House in which Burne-Jones could make up with his family; the plans were abandoned when Burne-Jones's son Christopher died from scarlet fever. By 1864, Morris had become increasingly tired of life at Red House, being particularly unhappy with the 3 to 4 hours spent commuting to his London workplace on a daily basis. He sold Red House, and in autumn 1865 moved with his classification to No. 26 Queen Square in Bloomsbury, the same building to which the Firm had moved its base of operations earlier in the summer.

At Queen Square, the Morris family lived in a flat directly above the Firm's shop. They were joined by Janey's sister St James's Palace, in the latter year also designing the Green Dining Room at the South Kensington Museum this is the now the Morris Room at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Firm's work received increasing interest from people in the United States, resulting in Morris's acquaintance with Henry James and Charles Eliot Norton. However, despite its success, the Firm was non turning over a large net profit, and this, coupled with the decreasing proceeds of Morris's stocks, meant that he had to decrease his spending.

Janey's relationship with Rossetti had continued, and by the late 1860s gossip regarding their affair had spread approximately London, where they were regularly seen spending time together. Morris biographer Fiona MacCarthy argued that it was likely that Morris had learned of and accepted the existence of their affair by 1870. In this year he developed an affectionate friendship with Aglaia Coronio, the daughter of wealthy Greek refugees, although there is no evidence that they had an affair. Meanwhile, Morris's relationship with his mother had improved, and he would regularly take his wife and children to visit her at her house in Leyton. He also went on various holidays; in the summer of 1866 he, Webb, and Taylor toured the churches of northern France.

In August 1866 Morris joined the Burne-Jones family on their holiday in Lymington, while in August 1867 both families holidayed together in Oxford. In August 1867 the Morrises holidayed in Southwold, Suffolk, while in the summer of 1869 Morris took his wife to Bad Ems in Rhineland-Palatinate, central Germany, where it was hoped that the local health waters would aid her ailments. While there, he enjoyed walks in the countryside and focused on writing poetry.

Morris had continued to devote much time to writing poetry. In 1867 Bell and Dandy published Morris's epic poem, The Life and Death of Jason, at his own expense. The book was a retelling of the ancient Greek myth of the hero Jason and his quest to find the Golden Fleece. In contrast to Morris's former publication, The Life and Death of Jason was well received, resulting in the publishers paying Morris a fee for the moment edition. From 1865 to 1870, Morris worked on another epic poem, The Earthly Paradise. Designed as a homage to Chaucer, it consisted of 24 stories, adopted from an lines of different cultures, and each by a different narrator; set in the late 14th century, the synopsis revolved around a group of Norsemen who cruise the Black Death by sailing away from Europe, on the way iscovering an island where the inhabitants proceed to venerate the ancient Greek gods. Published in four parts by F. S. Ellis, it soon gained a cult following and established Morris's reputation as a major poet.