Single Stem
1905 · Block-printed wallpaper on continuous paper · Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
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About this work
- Artist
- John Henry Dearle (1860–1932)
- Year
- 1905
- Medium
- Block-printed wallpaper on continuous paper
- Original size
- 69 × 57.5 cm
- Collection
- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
- Movement
- Arts and Crafts
Large orange flowers rise on curling stems among broad blue and green acanthus leaves, over a pale underlay of small leaves on a cream ground. Single Stem was designed by John Henry Dearle around 1905, nearly a decade after William Morris's death, when Dearle was art director of the firm. The Cooper Hewitt records that eight woodblocks were needed to print it; this sheet was printed by Jeffrey & Co. on continuous paper. The V&A describes the design as scrolling acanthus leaves and large flowers over a smaller foliate pattern, a layered structure that keeps Dearle close to Morris's own papers. Dearle managed the firm's Merton Abbey works until his death in 1932. The sheet entered the Cooper Hewitt in 1935.
This print fills the sheet edge to edge with the pattern, cropped from a high-resolution museum scan of the original, so it reads like a panel of the wallpaper or fabric. The exhibition poster shows the whole sample. The design is in the public domain.
Where it works
Orange flowers and blue-green acanthus on cream bring colour without heaviness to a living room, sunroom or bright hallway. Pair it with Golden Lily, another Dearle paper, at 16×24 in natural wood.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Arts and Crafts pattern
- Era
- 20th century (1905)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- decorative, classic
- Rooms
- hallway or entryway
Size. We'd hang this one at 16×24. Prints at 12×18, 16×24 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway.
Framing. Printed edge to edge: a slim black or natural wood frame right to the pattern, or let the canvas wrap do the framing. Also available gallery-wrapped on canvas, ready to hang with no frame.
Pairing. Hangs alone or as a matched pair; three or more prints are 10% off.
