Illustration: William Morris. Pomegranate wallpaper design, 1866.
Although The Textile Blog tries to set particular designers and designs within a context that can often include social, political and even religious factors, sometimes it is just nice to sit back and enjoy pattern work for its own sake. Although it is useful to emphasise underlying trends, the parameters of a particular decorative era, influences on the designer from source material and even the creative journey of the individual designer or artist, at other times pattern work can be seen outside of this context and enjoyed for its own uniqueness.
William Morris, of which Pomegranate, also known simply as Fruit, is the example shown, stirs both admiration and criticism, often in equal measure and interestingly sometimes even by the same individual. Although his work can also stir both admiration and criticism, to explore the decades of decorative pattern work produced by Morris over a relatively long creative career can produce a level of understanding, at least as far as the relationship between creativity and observation is concerned, that allows us to enjoy the work as seen.
The designer and their own unique representation of nature is by far the most obvious aspect of Morris and his career. In seemingly countless permutations, flower, fruit and leaf are re-examined for their potential as decoration. Morris work became much more accomplished and through that realisation, much more complex, as his career progressed. Foliage becomes intertwined and undulating, colours more complex and the process of development, relatively speaking, multi-layered. However, it is perhaps the simpler and earlier efforts such as Pomegranate which became a wallpaper design in 1866 that really gives a more acute indication of what highlights the real sense of an uncomplicated clarity that can be achieved by making nature the central focus of a design piece.
Although the natural world was used by Morris as a tool in which to produce a seemingly infinite variety of permutations of pattern work for both textile and wallpaper, it was also a celebration of the beauty of nature. Although Morris spent most of his life in London, as did many of his clients, the appeal of the natural world, which often bordered on an emotional level, was and still is a real aspect of the human character. This connection with the natural environment, even though seen through the lens of urban life, cannot be dismissed purely as emotionally charged romanticism.
While there is no doubt that Morris tapped into a perceived longing amongst the English for a country life, most knew that that life was either beyond their immediate hopes and aspirations, or was never to be realistically fulfilled. Just as today when many urban people live with mock country kitchens complete with hanging dried herbs, many urban Victorians lived with flowers on their walls as a respite from the concrete and tarmac that surrounded them.
To enjoy a wallpaper for nothing more than its ambience, line and colour, is a simplicity in its own right. A minimalism of thought, without factors that take it into other realms that can too easily destroy that minimal sense of joy. Without that, pattern is nothing.
Further reading links:
Wallpaper: A History of Style and Trends
The Papered Wall: The History, Patterns and Techniques of Wallpaper, Second Edition
Wallpaper in America: From the Seventeenth Century to World War I
Fabrics and Wallpapers for Historic Buildings
Wallpaper and the Artist: From Durer to Warhol
V&A Pattern: William Morris: (Hardcover with CD)
V&A Pattern: Slipcased Set #2: (Hardcovers with CDs)
William Morris (Temporis)
The Pattern Sourcebook: A Century of Surface Design
Designs of William Morris (Phaidon Miniature Editions)
William Morris: Patterns & Designs (International Design Library)
William Morris Decor and Design
The Beauty of Life: William Morris and the Art of Design
The Flowers of William Morris
