Tuesday 24 March 2009

Because...


.. it's William Morris's birthday (b 1834) - and because it's such a brilliant and funny caricature - here are Topsy (Morris) and Ned (Burne Jones) settled in the settle at Red Lion Square, as envisaged long after by Max Beerbohm.

3 comments:

  1. I'm still unsure as to whether I like Morris or not yet, as his wallpaper makes me dizzy and Im not really into blood red, dark green and gold as a colour scheme.

    I am quite keen on the overall style of proper A&C style houses though

    I am similarly ambivalent to Pugin too,(houses good, wallpaper bad) I wonder if my feelings will change over time?

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  2. He has kept Sanderson wallpapers in a good profitable position for years, good move that, buying the woodcuts, have you seen the price per roll.

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  3. I cannot say that my vision of elysium is reading Morris' poetry or prose romances in a room decorated with his wallpaper designs. However, like so many of the Great Victorians, he puts us to shame with his extraordinary energy and his interest in and enthusiam for life.

    Morris befriended WB Yeats in the 1880s, and in his book Four Years Yeats said of Morris that "To-day I do not set his poetry very
    high, but for an odd altogether wonderful line, or thought; and
    yet, if some angel offered me the choice, I would choose to live
    his life, poetry and all, rather than my own or any other man's."

    Some compliment!

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