Willow (Gold)
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
Willow leaves, each with a fine central vein, are printed in warm yellow and ochre on a white ground, forming loose sprays that twist across the sheet in every direction. This is William Morris's Willow of 1874; thirteen years later he reworked the subject as the more naturalistic Willow Bough. The Cooper Hewitt keeps the two designs together in one group of sample sheets and lists this one as the Willow design printed in yellow and brown on white. The V&A counts the willow among Morris's favourite motifs; he also used small willow leaves as a background in other designs. In this colourway the leaves read warm gold rather than green. This 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
Warm yellow willow leaves on white bring sunlight to a kitchen, hallway or a pale grey bedroom. Pair it with Willow (Blue) as a contrasting pair at 12×18 each in natural wood.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Arts and Crafts pattern
- Era
- 19th century (1874)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- decorative, classic
- Rooms
- bedroom, kitchen, hallway or entryway
Size. We'd hang this one at 12×18. 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.
