In this post, I will begin to read and analyse the interior design information in: 'Victorian and Edwardian decor : from the gothic revival to art nouveau' by Jeremy Cooper. I believe this will help me in the following ways:
I will gain more insight into the particulars of the arts and crafts + Art Nouveau style
I will learn information about late-victorian styles of arts and crafts interiors, contributing to my design awareness surrounding 'time lag'.
I will learn things undisclosed in the two previous texts, from a new academic perspective.
On the introduction
This book also mentions Musethius (the author of 'The British House', 1904). I believe it is important to reference him in my final research due to the significance of his writing on the topic
Decorative arts became intertwined with the general construction of buildings (As seen in the work of Butterfield)
Chapter six: Morris and Company
This chapter explores the mid-to-late work of Morris and Company, particularly how it inspired the later evolution of the Arts and Crafts movement.
Morris and Webb worked together throughout the mid-Victorian period, inspired by simple decoration within their rural homes to begin crafting furniture and textiles
Morris himself did not design many furniture pieces past the initial 'bachelor pad' items in his home with Webb
The Red House (1860)
The first Arts and Crafts building of note is 'The Red House' (1860), an "Important event in the development of Phillip Webb's ideas about design".
It was praised by W.R. Lethaby for its undecorated brick fireplaces, as one of the first examples of domestic decoration with a "Constructional" focus (i.e. the construction of the space being unconcealed)
Webb aimed to create a space and style that was 'a-historical', in part by drawing back to the effervescent nature of organic life and shape.
In 1861, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (later Morris & Co. in 1875) was founded, financed by such names as Webb, Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown, Burne Jones and more.
Originally a co-operative of artists and designers
Rossetti re-designed the 'Sussex chair' and 'Lyre-back' chair
It is difficult to attribute one artist to the overall Morris & Co. output due to their co-operative system of working, and many socialist figures of the time contributed to the design work (eg. Ford Madox Brown)
Brown's contributions for example would be inspiring in their own right, eventually leading to Ambrose Heal creating their 1899 'Simple bedroom furniture' suite
Following the exhibitions of the 1860's, design of furniture would eventually soley be undertaken by Phillip Webb
"All our better new house furniture owes something to Webb's experiments"
- Lethaby, 1925
"[He has] an independence amounting almost to genius ... he is the embodiment of maximum honesty"
- Musethius on Webb, 1904
"[It is] the duty of the present generation to make a faithful technical record of his work"
- Lutyens on Webb
The origins of Webb's design work are shown in his drawn observations of the natural world: flora, fauna, the twisting shapes of leaves and trees.
'Clouds House' (1886, 1891) is considered Webb's Magnum opus
Alongside designing architecture and furniture, Webb designed many of the Morris & Co. early stained glass (though the author stresses that Burne-Jones also designed many successful works)
Medieval inspiration was rife for the early Arts & Crafts innovators
A collection of early Morris furniture pieces from the text
'Daffodil Chintz', a popular Morris & Co. textile
Many Edwardian Morris & Co. interiors were designed by B. Stafford.
Furniture from Morris & Co.
A Dante Gabriel Rossetti chair from 1862
Morris & Co. doorway decoration commissioned for the armoury of St. James Palace
Morris & Co. relief plaster decoration by Phillip Webb commissioned for the South Kensington Museum's Green Dining Room
A Morris & Co. 1893 piano designed by George Jack incorporating Webb-esque birds and a "Decorative inlay", commissioned for Bullers Wood in Kent
Stained glass, textiles and tiles from Morris & Co.
A 1901 Merton Abbey tapestry
A roundel for G.F. Bodley's 'All Saints', Gloucestershire, 1862
On later Morris & Co. designs
A selection of Edwardian Morris & Co. furniture, in ebony inlaid with silver the designer of which is yet to be identified
At the later point of the Morris & Co. history, neither Morris or Webb had much interaction with the daily affairs of the company and much of the later designs were created by George Jack.
Earlier designs by Morris & Co. would continue to be marketed alongside 'newer' pieces, with later designs becoming "increasingly revivalist".
On The Arts & Crafts movement
Inspired specifically by the teachings and socialist ethics of William Morris, rather than anything the Morris & Co. company would itself evoke
There was a debate in the movement itself about incorporating the 'plight' of the B.W.M (British Working Man, or the lower classes)
Figures such as C.S. Ashbee would write essays on wage slavery within the arts, which inspired a sense of unity and craftsman-focused work within the movement itself
"Too much luxury is the death of the artistic soul"
- C.F.A. Voysey, 1894
Followed the path of John Ruskin by using the Medieval 'guild system', creating the 'Art-workers guild' in 1882
Exhibitions and 'member shows' showcased socialist- inspired art depicting organic forms and craftsmanship ideals
Morris himself later joined the guild
An 1889 wallpaper designed by Voysey, depicting himself as a caricatured demon
A Voysey-designed interior drawing room at the Garden Corner (Chelsea Embankment), 1906-7
A mahogany cabinet designed by Spooner (of the Arts and Crafts movement) in 1910. This was exhibited the same year at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society.
A walnut corner-hanging cabinet designed by Ernest Gimson around 1890
By 1904, a monthly manual (Arts and Crafts) was published and many Arts and Crafts guilds operated throughout the country, to varying extents.
Arts and Crafts fireplace designs (1899, Halsey Ricardo)
C.F.A. Voysey
A prominent member of the Arts and Crafts movement, Voysey's most notable work occurs between the late 1890's and early 1910's, around the point my interior is based. Examples of his work include 'The Orchard, Chorleywood, Hertfordshire (his family home)' built in 1899.
On The New Art
Mackintosh's work with the Glasgow School of Art is discussed here, particularly in terms of how controversial it was in the eyes of critics such as H.J. Jennings in his 1902 'Our Homes and How we Beautify Them'. Though disliked by many upper-class critics in Britain, figures such as Musethius revered the style, describing British Art Nouveau as "Refined to a degree which even the artistically educated are still a long way from matching".
A settle designed by Mackintosh in 1896, shown at the Arts and Crafts exhibition
A table designed by Mackintosh in 1903
An inlaid mahogany cabinet designed by George Montague Ellwood under the inspiration of the Glasgow School of art, 1904
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