Compton

Maker Morris and Company (London, British, 1861 - 1940)

Designerdesigned by John Henry Dearle (British, 1860 - 1932)

ClassificationsDECORATIVE ARTS

Dateca. 1896

Mediumdistemper on paper

Dimensionssheet: 44 1/2 × 22 3/8 in. (113 × 56.8 cm.) frame: 49 1/2 × 28 1/2 in. (125.7 × 72.4 cm.)

DescriptionLarge pink and blue blossoms with pink honeysuckle flowers and small white blossoms are intertwined with vines and acanthus leaves in pale green against dark green ground.

Inscribedrecto down right side printed in green ink: "MORRIS & COMPANY Rl No 271763"

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Status

Not on view

Label TextThis wallpaper design was part of a special commission by the Midlands brewer Laurence Hodson for his country house Compton Hall, near Wolverhampton. Registered in the year of Morris's death, Compton was designed by John Henry Dearle, one of the firm's chief designers, who closely imitated Morris's style. Dearle uses floral motifs arranged in a naturalistic manner, scattering the flowers loosely between the diagonal vines. In his 1881 lecture "Some Hints on Pattern Designing," Morris described two structures for repeating patterns: the "net," or diamond pattern, and the "branch," a pattern based on parallel diagonal lines. The branch structure of this design creates a strong impression of upward movement or, as Morris called it, "rational growth."

Object number2001.23

Terms