African Marigold
1876 · Printed cotton · Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
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About this work
- Artist
- William Morris (1834–1896)
- Year
- 1876
- Medium
- Printed cotton
- Original size
- 66.4 × 98.5 cm (piece a)
- Collection
- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
- Movement
- Arts and Crafts
Interlacing leafy branches form great circles around large open flowers and smaller rosettes, printed in a single blue on off-white cotton, the leaves streaked with fine lines. William Morris designed African Marigold in 1876, and it was registered on 7 October that year. It was first printed for him by Thomas Wardle at Leek, the Staffordshire dyer with whom Morris had experimented with natural dyes in 1875. Morris grew frustrated with the uneven results, writing critically to Wardle in early 1881, and later that year he took dyeing and printing into his own hands at Merton Abbey. The pattern shares its subject, but not its drawing, with his Marigold wallpaper of 1875. This sample, two pieces of printed cotton, is in the Cooper Hewitt.
This print shows the whole sample, uncropped, from a high-resolution museum scan of the original. The design is in the public domain.
Where it works
A single blue on off-white, with circling leaves and open flowers, suits a blue-and-white kitchen, bathroom or cottage bedroom. Pair it with Marigold, the wallpaper on the same flower, at 16×24 in natural wood.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Arts and Crafts pattern
- Era
- 19th century (1876)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- butter yellow
- Mood
- decorative, classic
- Rooms
- bedroom, kitchen, bathroom
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. The cream ground is its own mat: a slim black or natural wood frame, no extra mat.
Pairing. Hangs alone or as a matched pair; three or more prints are 10% off.
