Liverpool’s Lady Lever Art Gallery is to host a new exhibition in honour of one of the most pioneering women of the Arts and Crafts movement. May Morris who is the daughter of designer William Morris was an English artisan, embroidery designer, jeweller, socialist, and editor. The new exhibition is set to take place from the 25th April to the 1st November this year and will showcase May’s exceptional ability which was seen by many to be very advanced and ahead of it’s time.
The event will feature how May honed her skills and talents through a wide variety of fields and mediums including embroideries, wallpapers, designs, sketches, books, costume and jewellery. The occasion which is being run along side The William Morris Society will go in to detail surrounding fifty objects from museums and private collections around the UK including the William Morris Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London – as well as items from National Museums Liverpool’s own collection.
May’s childhood was spent surrounded by her creative family and their artistic friends. These included founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; a group of English artists and poets, whose paintings feature in the Lady Lever Art Gallery collection. May and her sister, Jenny, were friends with the children of the painter Edward Burne-Jones. Their mother was the muse and lover of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Through out her youth, May contributed to her father’s design work which included wallpaper and textile projects which were famously produced by Liberty, the iconic London fashion and homeware store. She learned needle work from her mother and aunt and also went to the National Art Training School in South Kensington where she studied embroidery. Examples of her work in the exhibition demonstrate her outstanding ability.
In 1885, at the age of 23, May became the manager of Morris & Co.’s professional embroidery workroom. She expanded this area of the business and recruited embroiderers through her own networks, as well as providing apprenticeships for working-class girls from a local school in London. The working environment that she created was far removed from the exploitative Victorian textile industry of the time. She later co-founded the Women’s Guild of Arts to support women working in the arts.
May supervised the production of household textile items that were designed by her in the Morris & Co. style. These included wall hangings, fire screens, cushions, chair covers, mats and tablecloths, which were displayed in the company’s showroom on Oxford Street, London. She was committed to reviving traditional stitching techniques, looking to medieval and later examples of needlework for inspiration.
• May Morris was also an influential teacher and lecturer, helping revive traditional embroidery techniques and promoting design education in Britain and internationally. (source- <https://www.ashmolean.org/article/many-talents-of-may-morris-art-and-crafts-designer-and-embroidery-legend“>a href=”https://www.ashmolean.org/article/many-talents-of-may-morris-art-and-crafts-designer-and-embroidery-legend”>https://www.ashmolean.org/article/many-talents-of-may-morris-art-and-crafts-designer-and-embroidery-legend)
• Recent scholarship has increasingly repositioned May Morris as a major designer in her own right rather than a secondary figure within her father’s circle as she had been previously represented. (source – https://www.ashmolean.org/article/many-talents-of-may-morris-art-and-crafts-designer-and-embroidery-legend)
Included in the exhibition will be several seventeenth century examples of embroidery which help to show how historic needle work influenced May’s design and production methods.
A sketchbook containing drawings and watercolours reveals May’s deep interest in nature, stemming from her childhood holidays spent enjoying the outdoors at Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire. Examples of wallpapers designed by May also feature. Notably, her best-selling design Honeysuckle, historically wrongly attributed to her father, along with Arcadia and Horn Poppy; all of which were inspired by her botanical sketches and can still be purchased today.
Entry to the exhibition is free. Donations are encouraged to help keep National Museums Liverpool’s venues and collections free and accessible to all, and to create memorable experiences for everyone. A range of gifts featuring iconic Morris designs can be purchased from the gallery gift shop and online, with all profits supporting the museums and galleries.
