Kennet (Gold Silk)
1883 · Woven silk · The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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About this work
- Artist
- William Morris (1834–1896)
- Year
- 1883
- Medium
- Woven silk
- Original size
- 228 × 70.5 cm
- Collection
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Movement
- Arts and Crafts
Sage-green flowers and broad leaves rise on curving stems over a golden ground that carries its own faint woven pattern of small vines and flowers, so the cloth shows two tones of gold. This is William Morris's Kennet, registered as a design on 18 October 1883, here woven in silk rather than printed. Morris named several patterns of these years after rivers, this one after the Kennet, a tributary of the Thames. The V&A describes the motif as wavy sunflower stems and acanthus leaves over small curling grapevines; in silk the grapevine ground becomes a subtle tonal texture instead of a printed field. Kennet was offered in several cloths so customers could choose. This length, over two metres long, was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1923.
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
Sage-green flowers on a softly patterned gold ground feel calm and luminous in a bedroom, dressing room or warm-white living room. Pair it with Chrysanthemum at 16×24 in natural wood.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Arts and Crafts pattern
- Era
- 19th century (1883)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- decorative, classic
- Rooms
- living room, bedroom
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.
