William Morris’ Red House

08 Tuesday Dec 2015

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, England, Middle Ages, Romanticism

Tags

Arts and Crafts Movement, Edward Burne-Jones, Morris & Co., Philip Webb architect, Socialism, The Grotesque, The Red House

Philip Webb‘s Red House

The above-featured Red House was co-designed by Philip Webb, William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones.

In my post on Art in 19th-century England, I mentioned the Arts and Crafts movement, but realized that the Arts and Crafts movement had to be discussed separately. The Arts and Crafts movement grew into an international movement whose members and supporters valued the decorative arts and design. North American Mission style furniture, still a favourite in many homes, is considered an outgrowth of the Arts and Crafts movement.

The Arts and Crafts movement is sometimes viewed as a validation of the applied arts. In this regard, it has often been associated with William Blake‘s (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) rejection of the “Dark Satanic Mills,” of the industrial age, which it was to a large extent.

: William Morris design adapted by Charles Fairfax, c. 1870 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Socialism

The Arts and Crafts movement, however, was also a precursor. It is one of the birthplaces of design and other applied arts. Moreover, because they rejected the industrial age, some members of the movement advocated socialism. Persons working in factories were looked upon as machines and made to work 60 hours a week in an unhealthy environment. Walter Crane (15 August 1845 – 14 March 1915), known mainly as a prolific illustrator, but also a member of the Arts and Crafts movement, was associated with the international Socialist movement and opposed this kind of abuse. William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a “socialist activist.” (See William Morris, Wikipedia.)

The Red House was built in Bexleyheath (London). Morris intended it to be his permanent home, but its location was not sufficiently central. Morris therefore moved his family to the more conveniently located Bloomsbury, where he established his company, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (1861-1875), the future Morris & Co.

“The firm’s designs are still sold today under licences given to Sanderson and Sons (which markets the ‘Morris & Co.’ brand) and Liberty of London.”

That part of London had been home to the Bloomsbury Group and, therefore, to Virginia Woolf. Morris and his wife, Jane Burden Morris, Pre-Raphaelite Dante Gabriel Rossetti‘s muse, also rented Kelmscott Manor. It was their summer home.

Medievalism

William Morris is not associated with Japonism, except indirectly. Walter Crane’s illustrations were Japonist, but Crane was an eclectic artist. He also designed tiles and wallpaper. As for William Morris, he epitomizes eclecticism, but he was, first and foremost, a medievalist. He and Sir Edward Burne-Jones met as students at Oxford University and were both attracted to medievalism.

Morris and Burne-Jones shared their interest in the Middle Ages with French author Victor Hugo (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) whose Hunchback of Notre-Dame or Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) is a favourite. Morris and Burne-Jones may in fact have been influenced by Victor Hugo. Medievalism was a characteristic of French Romanticism as was exoticism, such as orientalism.

Hugo’s Les Orientales (1829) is an example of orientalism. So are many of Jean-Léon Gérôme‘s (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) paintings, a few of which I have used in recent posts. Gérôme was an académicien at about the time académiciens started to fall into disrepute.

The Grotesque

When I started rewriting this post, I looked up the entry “Daniel Rabel,” in Wikipedia to get information on the “grotesque” in 17th-century France. The grotesque is associated with the Middle Ages: Quasimodo (the hunchback), gargoyles, misericords, but it resurfaces. I have written posts on stage and costume designer Daniel Rabel‘s “grotesque” ballets de cour. These will be listed separately.

Allow me to finish The Red House. I had nearly forgotten writing about Daniel Rabel, but I remember the Red House.

Kindest regards to all of you. ♥

RELATED ARTICES

Johann Amos Comenius: Word and Art (7 November 2015)
Word and Art (6 November 2015)
The Golden Age of Illustration in Britain (30 October 2015)
Art in 19th-century England (19 October 2015)
Mostly Misericords: the Medieval Bestiary (10 November 2014)
The Columbine Tile: William Morris (6 November 2011)

Morris & Co. Design (Photo credit: Google images)

Un peu, beaucoup, passionnément…

10 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Fashion

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Arts and Crafts Movement, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, Georges Barbier, Morris, Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Wikipedia, William Morris

En effeuillant la marguerite

A new day has dawned that has a purer taste. I am therefore featuring another George Barbier illustration for its youthfulness. I am also featuring textile designs by William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896), a British designer, writer, printer: the Kelmscott Chaucer, a close friend of Sir Edward Burne-Jones: a man of many talents.

Un peu, beaucoup, passionnément…

In Barbier’s illustration, the Lady wonders whether he loves her un peu, beaucoup or passionnément…

When I was very young, long before I was interested in men, I would pick the petals off daisies. The last petal told me an imaginary truth. It’s a lovely memory, but it was another age. An age when you waited for the gentleman to phone you. An age when you were afraid he would turn his back on you if you showed your true feelings.

I am glad times have changed. A woman should be able to phone a man and suggest a date. But I miss picking at a daisy and I would like to wear that dress, but not to walk in the countryside. I would wear it to walk in a beautifully manicured garden with little paths.

According to Wikipedia, William Morris was a “libertarian socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement. He founded a design firm in partnership with the artist Edward Burne-Jones, and the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti.” I have featured works by William Morris in other posts.

As for George Barbier (1882-1932), he was a French illustrator. The work shown above is entitled “N’en dites rien,” (Do not say a word about it). It was featured in an exclusive fashion magazine called: La Gazette du Bon Ton, in 1913. “Bon ton” means good taste.

George Barbier is featured with permission from Art Resource, NY. As for the samples of textile designed by Mr Morris, Wikipedia was my source.

9 July 2012

WordPress

Carl Larsson: Ett Hem

09 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Sharing

≈ 242 Comments

Tags

art, Barbizon School, Carl Larsson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, John Ruskin, Royal Swedish Academy of Arts

— Blomsterfönstret (Windowsill with Flowers), 1894 -1898

Look at this beautiful room. There are flowers on the windowsill. A young girl is watering the flowers. To the left, we find the essential day bed. The carpeting seems hand-woven and is almost identical to French-Canadian “catalognes.” The wooden floor is made of wide planks. They were still available in those days. The little stage is just right for children and makes a delightful side table for the person lying on the day bed. The furniture is colored and the day bed, covered with striped fabric: blue stripes.

In my eyes, Carlsson’s paintings of his family and home are his masterpieces. I love the details suggesting the daily life of a family. For instance, I see the little white cat in the kitchen, the wool on a small dining-table, a young pianist at the piano. Carl and Karin Larsson loved their home and made it their jewell. They made it Ett Hem (A home).

Carl Larsson

Carl Larsson (May 28, 1853 – January 22, 1919) was born in Stockholm to a very poor family. But his artistic talents were recognized in time for him to be trained at the “principskola” of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts where success as a student gave him confidence and led to employment. For instance, he was, among other things, an illustrator.

Larsson, the illustrator

Working as an illustrator left an imprint on Carl Larsson’s art. Many artists do not let us see the sketch, or the lines, from which emerges the finished work of art. But Larsson leaves in the lines which links him to the Arts and Crafts Movement. The Arts and Crafts Movement, a mainly British movement, included such artists as Walter Crane, an illustrator. Its membership also included the very prominent William Morris, its chief member. The Arts and Crafts Movement is sometimes associated with Pre-Raphaelite artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, John Ruskin, an artist and theorist, except that the Pre-Raphaelites went beyond realism. They reached for a utopia. As for Carl Larsson’s art, it is representational but very much alive. In fact, it constitutes a compelling chronicle of a dream come true: a home!

Mammas och småflickornas rum (Mamma's and the small girls' room), 1897 (please click on the picture to enlarge it)

Definition
It is neither right nor wrong to show the sketches from which a painting emerges. Carl Larrson’s does so in a discreet manner and to the advantage of his art. It is characterized by definition, definition in its most fundamental acceptation. This style may be a matter of temperament, but it could also be a matter of choice.

Influences

Larsson’s art also reflects exposure to the Barbizon School, a French movement particularly well represented by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. In fact, having spent two years with the ‘plein-air’ Barbizon disciples, Larsson founded a colony of Swedish artists working in France. Among members of the group was Karin Bergöö, an artist and Carl Larsson’s future wife. She and Carl had eight children.

When he met and married Karin, Larsson left behind abject poverty to enter a world that gave him not a castle but the home he had not had as a child and which would be home not only to his family, but also to those among us who, as I have already expressed, require an occasional refuge. Lilla Hyttnäs is both alive and livable.

Lathörnan (Cosy Corner), 1894

There is so much to say about Carl Larsson, but let the images speak for themselves. I will confine this blog to Carl Larsson’s paintings of Lilla Hyttnäs, in Sundborn, a house given to Karin and Carl by Karin’s father and which expresses the very essence of home.

* * *

Let us listen to Carl Larsson tell us about his feelings when he first visited Lilla Hyttnäs: