Bringing the garden indoors: how nature inspired William Morris

Jacq Barber Assistant Editor, Curatorial Content Online

'Larkspur' one of Morris's lighter coloured designs, this version was produced in 1875. It was chosen to decorate Amy Beale's bedroom at Standen — 'Larkspur', one of Morris's lighter-coloured wallpaper designs, chosen to decorate Amy Beale's bedroom at Standen, West Sussex

The North bedroom at Standen features embroideries, fabrics and wallpaper designed by Morris

'Cray' block-printed cotton furnishing fabric, designed in 1884, used at Wightwick Manor — 'Cray', block-printed cotton furnishing fabric, designed in 1884, used at Wightwick Manor, West Midlands

Honeysuckle was one of Morris's favourite plants and featured in several of his designs — Honeysuckle, one of Morris's favourite plants, featured in several of his designs

A modern copy of Morris's 'Willow Bough' pattern, first issued 1887, Standen — A modern copy of Morris's 'Willow Bough' pattern, first issued in 1887, at Standen

More than any other British designer of the decorative arts, William Morris brought the natural world indoors through the many wallpapers and textiles he produced during his lifetime. He drew on countryside and hedgerow plants to populate his patterns and he looked to old-fashioned flowers from the garden to inform his designs.

Discover how Morris helped transform interior decoration in late Victorian Britain and made a lasting impact on garden design into the 20th century.

Some of William Morris's designs

'Honeysuckle' a large-scale pattern for printed fabric, produced in 1876, was one of Morris’s most complex designs, Wightwick Manor

'Acanthus' wallpaper, 1875, the first of Morris’s large-scale patterns, Wightwick Manor

Detail of Morris's 'Powdered' wallpaper, 1874, named after small sprigs of meadow flowers, Standen

'Tulip and Rose' woven wool and linen furnishing fabric, designed in 1876, Wightwick Manor

'Honeysuckle' fabric

This large-scale pattern was produced in 1876 and was one of Morris’s most complex designs. It was made into wall hangings at Wightwick Manor.

'Acanthus' wallpaper

The first of Morris’s large-scale patterns, 'Acanthus' required 30 woodblocks to print the full pattern and 15 colours to create the design.

'Powdered' wallpaper

Designed in 1874, this pattern's name derives from the small sprigs of meadow flowers that are set against a background of willow leaves.

'Tulip and Rose' fabric

This, Morris’s first woven furnishing fabric, was chosen for the curtains in the Great Parlour at Wightwick Manor.

A childhood love of nature

A love of the natural world can be traced back to William Morris’s childhood. The son of a wealthy broker, he grew up exploring the large gardens at his family home, Woodford Hall in Essex and the nearby woods on the edge of Epping Forest. Along with his siblings, he was given his own garden plot. From a young age he enjoyed reading and the Morris family library was another source of inspiration. Among his favourite books was a copy of John Gerard's 'The Herball' or 'Generall Historie of Plantes', which was first published in 1597. It remained a much-loved reference book throughout his life.

Morris's experimental house and garden

In 1860, Morris moved into Red House in Bexleyheath with his new wife Jane Burden. The house was designed for him by his friend, the architect Philip Webb and became a creative centre for Morris’s circle of artist friends. Sited within an acre of orchard, the garden at Red House was as significant to Morris as the house and interior. Morris was drawn to native species and those that had been in cultivation for centuries, such as lilies, larkspur, tulips, irises and hollyhocks and chose fragrant climbers including roses, honeysuckle and jasmine.

Inspired by intimate medieval gardens or ‘herbers’, enclosed and filled with sweet-scented flowers and herbs, Morris created an astonishingly original garden at Red House. It included a large square garden, subdivided into four smaller squares, hedged with wild roses and wattle fence.

There are no surviving images of how the garden at Red House looked when the Morrises lived there but contemporary accounts describe a garden unlike any other of the period. — There are no surviving images of how the garden at Red House, Bexleyheath, looked when the Morrises lived there. Contemporary accounts described a garden unlike any other of the period

" The house and its garden were designed as complementary parts of a world all of its own."

Going against the fashion

In the mid-19th century, the fashion in British gardens was for tropical and tender plants, grown in new state-of-the-art glasshouses for the first time. Showy annuals such as begonias, lobelias, ageratum, coleus and petunias were sometimes tightly packed to make intricate patterns known as carpet bedding.

Morris's ideas were in stark contrast to these prevailing fashions. He believed in the unity of house and garden, using native and long established garden plants and natural materials, such as stone and wood. These became hallmarks of the Arts and Crafts gardens which followed at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

A new approach to garden design

Victorian carpet bedding

Carpet bedding was invented at Cliveden in Buckinghamshire by the head gardener, John Fleming, in the 1850s. Morris loathed the garish colours and complex blooms of the new tender plants that were becoming fashionable in gardens.

The Arts and Crafts architect, M. H. Baillie Scott produced a garden plan for Snowshill in the early 20th century. The garden was created using local materials. Like Morris, he believed in the integration of house and garden.

The Arts and Crafts garden

Snowshill Manor in Gloucestershire owes much to Morris's ideas which were developed by the generation of Arts and Crafts practitioners who followed him, such as the architect M. H. Baillie Scott. Scott produced a garden plan for Snowshill in the early 20th century.

Some of Morris's favourite plants

Forms of aquilegia vulgaris, naturalised in a grassy meadow

Common columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris)

Morris would have been familiar with references to columbine in Chaucer and Shakespeare and the flower appears in several of his designs. It was popular with Victorian plant breeders who created larger blooms; Morris preferred the simple flowers of the native plant.

Dog rose (Rosa canina)

The rose was one of Morris's favourite flowers. He grew roses at Red House, wrote about them in his poetry and used them in his designs, including his first pattern for wallpaper. His preference was for the simple flowers of wild and gallica roses.

Common hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

Hawthorn was a common hedgerow plant where Morris lived at Red House and later at Kelmscott Manor, his Cotswolds retreat in Oxfordshire. He used the whole plant, beautifully captured in a pattern of hawthorn blossom, leaves and branches in his ‘Jasmine’ wallpaper, designed around 1872.

" It is impossible to imitate nature literally; the utmost realism of the most realistic painter falls a long way short of it. "

Designing with nature

Morris took a new approach in the way he used natural forms in his designs. He understood plants intimately but never copied them literally. He didn’t think it was possible or desirable to imitate nature. He believed that patterns should have ‘beauty, imagination and order,’ using these principles across all his work. His first wallpapers were inspired by his own garden as well as depictions of plants in Renaissance paintings and wall hangings.

From plants to patterns

Sunflowers and other plants from the daisy family (Asteraceae) appealed to Morris. He was drawn to their simple-petalled, open flowers.

Simple sunflowers

Sunflowers and other plants from the daisy or aster family (Asteraceae) appealed to Morris. He was drawn to their simple-petalled, open flowers and they appear in many of his designs.

'Sunflower' wallpaper. Morris registered this pattern in 1879

Motif for a movement

Morris's 'Sunflower' wallpaper, printed in 1879, also features scrolling leaves, vines and tulips. Sunflowers were closely associated with the Aesthetic Movement, appearing as a motif in decorative arts and architecture during the last decades of the 19th century.

The origins of Morris & Co.

William Morris’s frustration at being unable to find furnishings to his taste led him to design his own. An exasperation with the state of British manufactured goods was another impetus for the establishment of an interior decoration business in 1861. His circle of friends, many already involved with Red House, contributed to the firm which eventually became Morris & Co.

By the 1870s, Morris's designs were being recommended in domestic advice manuals, the interior decoration magazines of their day. His wallpapers and textiles used hand-cut and printed woodblocks, and other fabrics were hand-embroidered or woven on traditional looms. This made them expensive to make and buy. Typical Morris & Co. clients were families like the Manders at Wightwick Manor and the Beales at Standen. Both were drawn from the prosperous middle classes, with an interest in the arts, who used Morris & Co. designs to furnish their often newly built, fashionable homes.

Artistic taste in home decoration

The 'Daisy' bedroom at Wightwick Manor, named after Morris's wallpaper design

Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton

Morris & Co. was an obvious choice for paint manufacturer Theodore Mander and his wife Flora when they were looking to furnish their new house, Wightwick Manor, three miles from their factory in Wolverhampton. They bought a wide range of Morris & Co. products, from fabrics and carpets to metalwork and furniture. ‘Daisy’, seen here, is one of 13 Morris wallpapers used in the house.

The hallway at Standen, decorated with 'Trellis' wallpaper

Standen, West Sussex

Solicitor Samuel Beale chose architect Philip Webb to build a country house for his large family in the 1890s. Webb’s connections to Morris & Co. meant the firm was well-placed to advise on the interior decoration. The company provided textiles, floor coverings and wallpapers to furnish the house. The hallway at Standen, shown here, is decorated with 'Trellis' wallpaper.

Early wallpapers

'Trellis'

Morris designed his first wallpaper in 1862 when he was living at Red House and couldn’t find one he liked. The design of the wattle trellis, intertwined with dog roses, was inspired by the garden. The birds were drawn by Philip Webb.

'Daisy'

‘Daisy’, with its simple flowers against a background suggestive of grass, was Morris’s first wallpaper to be put into production in 1864. Traditional woodblocks were used for all his wallpaper designs, cut from pear-wood and printed by hand. He preferred the soft, chalky colours of distemper paint.

'Fruit' or 'Pomegranate'

An early customer for Morris’s wallpapers was the Liverpool shipping magnate and art collector, Frederick Leyland, who used the three earliest designs, including this one, to decorate his home of Speke Hall around 1867.

Woven with flowers

Morris had a life-long love of textiles. He began modestly, designing simple embroideries, but by the end of his life he was making complex tapestries. Pattern names, whether for wallpaper or fabrics, often reflect his love of plants.

Embroideries were his first foray into commercial production and proved popular with clients once Morris & Co. became established. Clients could buy embroidery kits, with the pattern printed on the fabric, for embroidering at home. These would then be made up into cushion covers, portières and fire screens.

Detail of a silk embroidered hanging in the intricate ‘Artichoke’ pattern, worked by Margaret Beale and her three eldest daughters in the 1890s at Standen

Colours to dye for

Morris not only drew plants, he also used them in dyes for his wallpapers and textiles. He rejected the recently introduced artificial colours made from coal tar, considering it ‘one of the most useless inventions of modern chemistry.’

Instead he chose to return to natural dyes derived from plants, such as madder (red) and weld (yellow), obtaining a 15th-century French dye book from his friend Dante Gabriel Rossetti. One of his biggest challenges was dyeing with indigo which he proclaimed to be ‘the only real blue dye.’ He wrote about his arms and hands being stained blue from his experiments with large vats of the colour.

Blue birds

'Bird'

In March 1877 Morris wrote to his textile printer, Thomas Wardle, that he was studying birds with a view to include them in his next design. The resulting textile, made in a hand-woven woollen double cloth, was used to decorate the walls of his drawing room at Kelmscott Manor.

'Dove and Rose'

Woven in silk and wool, this complex design from 1879 includes some of Morris’s favourite plants: roses, oak leaves, acorns and scrolling leaves. Morris stipulated that it was suitable for curtains and hangings and it was produced in different scales and colours.

'Strawberry Thief'

Registered in May 1883, this fabric was named after the thrushes who stole strawberries from the garden at Kelmscott Manor. It was an expensive fabric to produce, involving complex dyeing techniques, yet proved to be one of the firm's most commercially successful designs.

Still inspired by nature

By the early decades of the 20th century, William Morris’s designs seemed overly ornate and unfashionable to many consumers. Fortunately, his decorative schemes survived at places such as Standen, Speke Hall and Wightwick Manor, where they can still be appreciated in their original setting.

Despite the fickleness of fashion, Morris’s celebration of nature and his skill at rendering it in pattern continue to resonate. Morris & Co. now produce his designs for 21st-century home owners, almost 160 years after he founded the original company.