Marigold
1875 · Block-printed wallpaper, distemper colours on paper · The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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About this work
- Artist
- William Morris (1834–1896)
- Year
- 1875
- Medium
- Block-printed wallpaper, distemper colours on paper
- Original size
- 68.6 × 54.6 cm (sheet)
- Collection
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Movement
- Arts and Crafts
Feathery leaves and open marigold flowers fill the sheet in a single blue printed against white, so the flowers, veins and stems read as pale lines on a dense blue field with almost no plain ground left. William Morris designed Marigold in 1875 as a pattern for both wallpaper and printed fabric; the V&A suggests it was probably the first of his textiles printed by Thomas Wardle at Leek in Staffordshire, the dyer with whom he was then experimenting with natural colours. The design belongs to the mid-1870s, when Morris had mastered block printing and was layering flowers over finely worked backgrounds. This sheet, block-printed in distemper by Jeffrey & Co., 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
A single blue on white, dense with marigolds and feathery leaves, suits a blue-and-white kitchen, bathroom or guest room. It pairs naturally with African Marigold, its printed-cotton cousin, at 16×24 in black.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Arts and Crafts pattern
- Era
- 19th century (1875)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- butter yellow
- Mood
- decorative, classic
- Rooms
- 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. 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.
