Willow (Blue)
1874 · Block-printed wallpaper on paper · Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
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About this work
- Artist
- William Morris (1834–1896)
- Year
- 1874
- Medium
- Block-printed wallpaper on paper
- Collection
- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
- Movement
- Arts and Crafts
Dark blue-green willow leaves twist over a lighter blue ground that is itself printed with a fine scatter of tiny five-petal flowers, giving the sheet two layers of pattern. This is William Morris's Willow design of 1874 in a blue colourway; the Cooper Hewitt describes these sheets as printed in blues on a ground powdered with a five-petal floral pattern, and catalogues them alongside samples of his later Willow Bough of 1887. The powdered ground adds a second, smaller rhythm beneath the leaves, so the paper reads as soft texture from across a room and as detailed drawing close up. The willow was one of Morris's favourite plants, used in several wallpapers and textiles. 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
Blue-green leaves over a powdered blue ground give a cool, quiet texture for a bathroom, bedroom or study with grey or white walls. Pair it with Willow (Sage) at 16×24 in black.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Arts and Crafts pattern
- Era
- 19th century (1874)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- decorative, classic
- Rooms
- bedroom, bathroom, 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.
