Daisy (Green)
1864 · Block-printed wallpaper on paper · Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
📦 Free shipping on every order, arriving in 4–9 business days with production included. Express ($14.90) at checkout arrives in 4–6 business days.
About this work
- Artist
- William Morris (1834–1896)
- Year
- 1864
- Medium
- Block-printed wallpaper on paper
- Original size
- 69 × 57.5 cm
- Collection
- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
- Movement
- Arts and Crafts
Daisies, sweet williams and columbines stand in formal rows on a light green ground flecked with darker strokes like short grass, the flowers picked out in white, pale yellow, pink and sky blue. This is William Morris's Daisy of 1864, the first wallpaper he put into production, in a cooler colourway than the familiar cream version. The Cooper Hewitt's description names all three plants, showing that the 'daisy' pattern is really a small meadow of wild and cottage flowers. Its flat, front-on plants derive, according to the V&A, from a hanging pictured in a fifteenth-century manuscript of Froissart's Chronicles, an early sign of Morris's love of medieval art. Morris listed Daisy among the 'positive patterns' he recommended to clients who wanted a decided design on their walls. The block-printed sheet is in the Cooper Hewitt.
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
Pastel flowers on a soft spring-green ground suit a nursery, child's bedroom or garden room. Pair it with Larkspur for a light, flowery wall, both at 12×18 in natural wood.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Arts and Crafts pattern
- Era
- 19th century (1864)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- decorative, classic
- Rooms
- bedroom, nursery
Size. We'd hang this one at 12×18. 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.
