Chrysanthemum

Morris' Chrysanthemum wallpaper design was finished in 1876 and bears some similarities to a work by Charles Annesley Voysey from 1924, which was titled Birds, Squirrel, Acorn and Oak Leaf.

The content of both feels very British, capturing features of this beautiful landscape for your own home. Wallpaper was very fashionable during the 19th century and Morris took advantange of this, offering a selection of different designs in order to suit all manner of tastes. He also concentrated on making at least some of his offering available to lower-income families for the first time. Previously, only the middle classes could afford these relative luxuries in their own homes.

Some of the original designs are now a part of a private collection but you should still be able to find parts of this design in the V&A Museum in London. This venue holds a huge collection of his work, much of which was gifted to it by members of his family immediately after his passing. Several of the designs like Chrysanthemum featured large amounts of preparation and amendments, meaning several different study pieces for each should still be in existence. Several foreign museums and art galleries also hold some of these items, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Studying the work of Morris, plus others who contributed to the Arts and Crafts Movement, is a great way of learning more about the British countryside, in terms of common plants and flowers. He was a master of combining them in just the right way to capture the beauty of this environment, but within a more ordered form that was suitable for your own home. Sometimes simplifying things is a real art, and certainly a skill that Morris himself possessed in bundles.