William Morris Essay example -- Visual Arts Paintings Art

William Morris William Morris, English poet, artist, socialist reformer, and innovator in the Arts and Crafts Movement. He was born in Walthamstow, then a village, and moved to a grand residence there called Water House at the age of 14 - this has since become the William Morris Gallery. He studied at Oxford with the intention of becoming a clergyman, but while there he met Edward Coley Burne-Jones, also studying for the church, and they both began to turn towards art. They were persuaded by Rossetti to give up the studies and become artists. Morris did a year in architectural practice of G. E. Street, and then turned to painting. However, he soon found that his metier was design. The cooperative attempt to decorate his new house (the Red House, built by Philip Webb) at Bexleyheath, south east of London, lead to the setting up of the firm Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. The partners were Morris, Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown, Philip Webb, Charles Faulkner, and Peter Paul Marshall, a surveyor. The firm was set up as a 'company of Fine Art Workmen', designing and producing (or at least supervising the production of) furniture, wallpaper, murals, tapestry work, stained glass windows, metalwork, tapestries, and smaller works such as tiles and embroidery. It started in 8 Lion Square, London, where there was sufficient space for workshops, showrooms, and a kiln in the basement for tile production. The firm later became simply Morris and Co. when Morris - always bless...