Net Ceiling
1895 · Block-printed ceiling paper · Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
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About this work
- Artist
- William Morris (1834–1896)
- Year
- 1895
- Medium
- Block-printed ceiling paper
- Original size
- 92 × 55.5 cm
- Collection
- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
- Movement
- Arts and Crafts
A symmetrical lattice of grey-green scrolling leaves on a pale stone ground meets at a central quatrefoil of four golden leaves, with ochre and rust-red flowers and small daisies set at the points of the net. Net Ceiling, also called The Net, was designed by William Morris in 1895, the year before his death, as a paper for ceilings rather than walls. The V&A describes it as a formalised foliate design with two axes of symmetry, so that it reads the same from any side, as a ceiling seen from all around a room must. It is one of the last papers Morris designed. This block-printed sheet is in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
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
Rust, ochre and grey-green on a stone ground give a warm, formal centrepiece for a hallway, dining room or above a fireplace. Pair it with Diaper at 16×24 in natural wood.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Arts and Crafts pattern
- Era
- 19th century (1895)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- decorative, classic
- Rooms
- dining room, hallway or entryway
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.
