Willow Bough
1887 · 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
- 1887
- 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
Slender willow branches sway diagonally across a cream ground, thick with leaves in two greens on thin brown stems. William Morris designed Willow Bough in 1887 as a more naturalistic reworking of his earlier Willow pattern of 1874. The V&A notes that it was inspired by trees seen on country walks, and that Morris owned a copy of Gerard's Herball of 1597, which illustrates a willow branch; the willow was among his favourite motifs. Because the branches flow in continuous curves, the repeat is hard to find, the effect Morris argued for in his 1881 lecture Some Hints on Pattern Designing, where he urged designers to mask a pattern's construction so the eye cannot count its repeats. The paper was block-printed in distemper colours by Jeffrey & Co.; this sheet 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
Green willow leaves on cream read as calm and leafy, right for a bedroom, bathroom or a narrow hallway. It sits well beside Willow (Green on Cream), the 1874 original, at 16×24 in natural wood.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Arts and Crafts pattern
- Era
- 19th century (1887)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- decorative, classic
- Rooms
- bedroom, bathroom, 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.
