![]() Prompted by the success of their efforts (and the experience of 'joy in collective labor'), Morris and his friends decided in 1861 to set up their own interiors company: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. Huge murals and hand-embroidered fabrics decorated the walls, creating the feel of a historic manor house. Morris and Jane moved into Red House in 1860 and, unhappy with what was on offer commercially, spent the next two years furnishing and decorating the interior with help from members of their artistic circle. The result was Red House, a property that would be 'medieval in spirit' and, eventually, able to accommodate more than one family. In part, Morris wanted to realize the idea of a craft-based artistic community that he and Burne-Jones had been talking about since they were students. Morris commissioned architect Philip Webb – whom he had met during his time at Street's – to design and build a home for himself and his wife in rural Kent. Consciously flouting the rules of class, Morris married Jane in 1859 (and her striking looks were to make her a model of idealized beauty for members of the Pre-Raphaelite group for the next 30 years). While working in Oxford, Morris had a chance meeting with a local stableman's daughter, Jane Burden. Burne-Jones's connection with the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti – a central figure in the Pre-Raphaelite group – soon led to Morris working with Rossetti as part of a team painting murals at the Oxford Union. Morris left Street's office after only eight months, to begin a career as an artist. Morris showed little talent for architecture and spent most of his time setting up Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, a vehicle both for his writing and that of other members of The Brotherhood. Soon after, Morris began work in the office of George Edmund Street, the era's leading Neo-Gothic architect. In 1855, Morris and Burne-Jones went on an architectural tour of northern France that made both men realize that they were more committed to art than the Church. It sparked his interest in trying to create an alternative to the dehumanizing industrial systems that produced poor-quality, 'unnatural' objects. Belonging to this group gave Morris an awareness of the deep divisions in modern society. They also read books by contemporary reformers such as John Ruskin, Charles Kingsley, and Thomas Carlyle. Burne-Jones introduced him to a group of students who became known as 'The Set' or ' The Brotherhood' and who enjoyed romantic stories of medieval chivalry and self-sacrifice. It was there that he met Edward Burne-Jones, who was to become one of the era's most famous painters, and Morris's life-long friend. ![]() ![]() On a family trip to London in 1851, Morris (aged 16) demonstrated his loyalty to craft principles by refusing to enter the Great Exhibition – which championed Machine Age design – on the grounds of taste.Īfter school, Morris went to Oxford University to study for the Church. He also had precociously strong opinions on design. Time spent exploring local parkland, forest, and churches, and an enthusiasm for the stories of Walter Scott, helped Morris develop an early affinity with landscape, buildings and historical romance. The financial success of his broker father gave Morris a privileged childhood in Woodford Hall (a country house in Essex), as well as an inheritance large enough to mean he would never need to earn an income. Morris was born in Walthamstow, east London, in 1834. A key figure in the Arts & Crafts Movement, Morris championed a principle of handmade production that didn't chime with the Victorian era's focus on industrial 'progress.' William Morris is best known as the 19th century's most celebrated designer, but he was also a driven polymath who spent much of his life fighting the consensus.
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