Fruit (Blue)
1862 · Block-printed wallpaper on paper · Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
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About this work
- Artist
- William Morris (1834–1896)
- Year
- 1862
- Medium
- Block-printed wallpaper on paper
- Original size
- 69.5 × 58.5 cm
- Collection
- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
- Movement
- Arts and Crafts
Diagonal branches laden with fruit cross a mid-blue ground: pomegranates split to show their seeds, lemons, oranges and peaches, with small red flowers among dark blue-green leaves. Fruit, also known as Pomegranate, is one of the three earliest wallpapers William Morris designed, alongside Trellis and Daisy. The Cooper Hewitt dates the design 1862, though the V&A cites evidence that it was drawn a few years later, and suggests that parts may be by different hands, the robust pomegranates possibly by Philip Webb. After his own attempts at printing from zinc failed, Morris had traditional pearwood blocks cut for it and handed production to Jeffrey & Co. of Islington. It became one of the most enduringly popular of all his papers. The Cooper Hewitt credits this blue-ground sheet to Jeffrey & Co.; it entered the museum 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
Pomegranates, lemons and oranges on a deep mid-blue ground suit a dining room, kitchen or a blue-walled study. Pair it with Fruit (Black) as a two-tone pair at 16×24 in black.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Arts and Crafts pattern
- Era
- 19th century (1862)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- decorative, classic
- Rooms
- kitchen, dining room, study or library
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.
