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William Morris

Lodden (furnishing textile)

Maker

William Morris (British, 1834-1896), designer

Title

Lodden (furnishing textile)

Year

1884

Medium

  • cotton; plain weave,
  • block printed

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • cotton; plain weave,
  • block printed

Materials

cotton

Geography

Manufacturing Site: Printed at Merton Abbey, England

Dimensions

Length: 162.6 cm (64 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Label: Selvage:Morris and Company 1884

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Mrs. Robert Fairbank and Mrs. Donald Crafts

Object Number

1988.096.6

Type

  • Textiles

Exhibition History

“Insnared with flowers, I fall on grass"
Jun 10, 2014 – Mar 08, 2015

Label copy

Arts and Crafts leader William Morris was one of many English architects, botanists, and fine artists who worked in textile design and manufacture in the mid-19th century. He excelled at rendering botanical subjects as complex repeating patterns, employing neglected techniques such as plant dyeing, hand dyeing, and block printing.

This pattern of dense vegetation undulating into ogival shapes illustrates Morris’s conviction that good design depicts perpetual motion. It also shows the lasting influence of exotic florals introduced into the design lexicon centuries prior and the more recent impact of Charles Darwin’s writings about evolution and the growth of plants.

Evolution Revolution
The Arts and Crafts in Contemporary Fashion and Textiles
Feb 22, 2008 – Jun 15, 2008

Label copy

In the 1870s, Morris studied and practiced the art of illuminated manuscript painting. His painted books illustrate a free-flowing and technically complex aesthetic. He desperately sought to render movement and successfully convey dynamic flow in his illuminated work, skills that translated seamlessly to the art of textile design. His reputation as a person who loved historicism and looked longingly to the Medieval and Renaissance periods is greatly exaggerated. Instead, his research into ancient crafts was done to salvage traditional techniques he feared would be lost in the wake of the Industrial Revolution.

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

William Morris (British, 1834-1896), designer
Lodden (furnishing textile), 1884
Cotton; plain weave, block printed
Length: 162.6 cm (64 inches)
Gift of Mrs. Robert Fairbank and Mrs. Donald Crafts 1988.096.6

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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