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8th March 2016
Born Jane Burden, she grew up to embody the Pre-Raphelite ideal of beauty and became a model to many famous artists- including her husband William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. She grew up in Oxford, the daughter of Robert Burden- a stableman, and Ann Maizey- a laundress and therefore grew up having quite a poor childhood, she had little education herself and if she had not gotten involved with the artists, she probably would have followed her mother into the domestic service industry.
Instead, in 1857, along with her sister Elizabeth she visited the Drury Lane Theatre Company in Oxford; here, Edward Burne-Jones and Rossetti noticed her seated in the gallery below them and approached her to ask her to model for them. At first she was reluctant to accept the proposal, she did not know these men and was therefore wary, she didn’t even show up to the scheduled time Rossetti was meant to paint her for his mural; it was only when she by chance bumped into Burne-Jones that she agreed and was thereafter catapulted to become an iconic face of the Pre-Raphealite art movement. Over the years, Rossetti became obsessed with painting Jane; much of his artwork that you can see today uses Jane as his model.
Morris met Jane when he used her as a model for his painting of Queen Guinevere (also known as La Belle Iseult,) during this period, he fell in love with her and proposed, she agreed however by her own admission, she was not in love with him. In a rather sweet gesture, it has been said Morris wrote on the back of the Guinevere painting, “I cannot paint you, but I love you.” Guinevere, in perhaps a bitter irony was also famously beautiful; and famously unfaithful. Rossetti was already engaged to Lizzie Siddal at this time and, despite probably being in love with him from the get go, she agreed to marry Morris. After her engagement, her education was focused on as she needed to be privately educated to become a rich gentleman’s wife. She had natural intelligence and was able to learn French and Italian and also learnt to play the piano. Her manners were also honed as she improved her class, and her speech more refined. Perhaps taking inspiration from her husband, she became quite the talented needle woman as she created beautiful embroideries.
La Belle Iseult 1858 William Morris 1834-1896 Bequeathed by Miss May Morris 1939
The couple had two daughters together- Jenny, born in 1861, and May born in 1862, the couple lived in Red House in Kent- a property Morris had built and he decorated, this remains as a beautiful National Trust property which is well worth a visit; the decorations he used in this house led to the Arts and Crafts movement. Later they moved to Kelmscott House which is now home the William Morris Society in the basement and coach house!
Morris went to Iceland in 1871, reportedly to leave his wife and his friend Rossetti to their affair as he found it too painful to watch; despite having invited Rossetti to live with them both in Kelmscott to keep the affair private. Once simply his favourite muse, once Rossetti’s wife died, the two seem to have developed a closer relationship which, on some level continued until his death in 1882. Of a Victorian marriage, it is not that surprising Jane married not for love but for class, this was done regularly and as a girl from a poor background, made financial sense. The relationship between Jane and Gabriel relationship did suffer due to his dependancy on chloral hydrate, a drug taken for insomnia, which she distanced herself from him due to. If you view his artistic impressions of Jane (of which there are many to choose from- even mythological roles he cast her in from Pandora to Proserpine,) she always has a sombre brooding face, which some have debated could be due to Rossetti’s own troubled soul, regardless, his artwork of Jane ensures her face is iconic of the ideal beauty of Pre-Raphaelite womanhood.
After Rossetti’s death, she had an affair with Wilfred Scawen Blunt; a poet and political activist that carried on until 1894. This was to be her last love, following the ending of the affair, her husband fell ill, and she cared for him until his death, after which she remained alone for the remainder of her life. She died 16 years after Morris, peacefully in her bed, aged 75.
Jane sits second from the right, in between her daughters Jenny and May, and in front of her husband, Morris. Photo from the National Portrait Gallery.
Posted in William Morris by Laura
We have one Golden Lily small tote in stock! ✨ Perfect for taking out and about, if everyone loves them we’ll start to make them ✂️ We have them in stock in Trellis too in small and large size, DM me for a link ✨
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #goldenlily #floraltote #totebag
Florals florals florals ✨ These are our exclusive range of designs that we’ve restored from our French archive that dates from the late 1800s- early 1900s, would you like a sneak peak at our archive? There’s still lots of gorgeous designs in there ready to shine again! 🫶🏻
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#floral #floralprint #floralfabric #floralfabrics #smallbusiness
Gorgeous wildflowers gracing this tablescape ✨ Lily is such an underrated design by William Morris, it’s one of our favourites! 🫶🏻 we’ve got 20% off everything on our website this weekend with code; WEEKEND if you have your eye on anything, but be quick, it ends midnight tomorrow! 🤎
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#williammorris #wmorris #lily #floraltable #wildflower
Cut this gorgeous fat quarter bundle today ✂️ Can you name all the gorgeous William Morris designs? ✨
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #fatquarter #fatquarterbundles #floralfabric
Did you know all our William Morris designs are licensed William Morris designs that we digitally print and manufacture in the UK 🇬🇧
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #floralfabric #smallbusinesssupportingsmallbusiness #quiltingfabric
Cut this gorgeous fabric stack today- can anyone name these iconic William Morris designs? ✨
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#williammorris #wmorris #quiltfabric #curtainfabric #floralfabric
Our fabric patchwork bundles, fabric bundles and remnants have been restocked on our website now! 🤎 With only a few available, hurry to get the designs you want, the bundles are great for smaller sewing and quilting bundles, what will you create? 🪡🧵
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#fabricscraps #fabricstash #williammorris #fabricseller #fabriclove
Is there anything better than fresh flowers? 🌻 Bringing sunshine and nature indoors with Merton blue on the table today 🤍
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#williammorris #wmorris #floraltable #flowerstagram #blueandwhite
In 1864, William Morris designed gorgeous Trellis- inspired by the rose trellis in the gardens of @redhousent 🌹 We’ve got a limited collection of small and large cotton tote bags that we’ve just put live on the website- the perfect accompaniment to your next day out, it’s a design that’s proved itself to be timeless, plus it’ll go with every outfit, what’s not to love! 🤍 If everyone loves our cotton totes, we could bring them out in more designs, which design would you like to see a tote in? 🌟
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#inspiredbynature_ #williammorris #trellis #garden #floraltotebag
Perfect in every colour; it’s Brother Rabbit ✨ Our licensed William Morris Forest Green colour way of Brother Rabbit now comes in tea towel form to add some timeless floral magic to your kitchen, did you know the birds and rabbits within the design were drawn by Philip Webb? 🐦⬛
Our tea towels are all printed and manufactured in the UK, and are £10.99 each 🌟
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #floral #philipwebb #floralprint
Gorgeous Mallow Forest Green in the sunshine this week ☀️ Our heavyweight fabric is so versatile with so many crafts, what will you make? 🧵
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabric #greenfloral #craftingfabrics
Wrap an order with us for a custom bundle of some wedding table linens 🌿 These Mallow Forest Green napkins and a custom table runner are now on their way to a customer to adorn their wedding tables, we’re so pleased to be involved in the tables of a few weddings this year! 🤍 If you are looking for gorgeous timeless William Morris florals for your tables, get in touch we’d love to discuss it with you ✨
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#williammorris #weddingtablescape #weddingtables #weddinglinens #weddingtablescape
It’s coming home! 🏴 To celebrate, take 15% off our website all weekend with code: HOME at checkout ⚽️ Hurry it ends Tuesday 🌿
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#williammorris #england #itscominghome⚽️ #britishbusiness #floralprint
The latest project, a little quilted jacket! ✨ Our William Morris Merton Blue cotton fabric is looking gorgeous, we’ll show you it when it’s finished ☺️ Remember if you’re quilting, our cotton fabric is perfect for the projects and we have lots of complimenting designs and colour ways within our range! 🪡
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#merton #quiltedjacket #quiltingfabric #quiltingfabrics #fabricstack
We’re often asked what the different weights of our fabrics are and what projects they’d be good for. These are our three different types of fabrics in our Brother Rabbit red colourway - cotton on the right, heavyweight in the middle and pvc on the left ✨ As you can see on the second photo, and as the name suggests, our heavyweight fabric has a thicker, heavier weave which makes it good for projects such as curtains and light upholstery 🪡 Our cotton fabric is perfect for quilting and projects such as dress making but honestly the amount of crafts that can be made out of them both are endless! 🫶🏻 Our pvc fabric is great to put straight on the table as it won’t fray so doesn’t need a hem and is easy to maintain as it’s wipe clean! All our fabrics are sold by the half metre and if you’d like a sample of any of our fabrics in any weight just let us know and we’ll get a free sample sent to you! 💌
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#williammorris #cottonfabric #quiltingfabric #curtainfabric #ukfabric
Our William Morris range is a gorgeous mix of colours and florals, which is your favourite? In some designs such as Strawberry Thief, Brother Rabbit, Willow Bough and Mallow we have different colour ways that we digitally print in the UK so check our website for the full range! 🫶🏻
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#williammorris #preraphaelite #quiltingfabric #fatquarters #britishbusiness
Perhaps the most famous Morris design, Strawberry Thief was registered in 1883, inspired by Morris watching the thrushes stealing strawberries from under his fruit nets at the beautiful @kelmscottmanor 🍓 It was printed using the indigo dye technique, which was labour intensive and first attempted in 1875 but not perfected for 8 years 🎨 We also print Strawberry Thief in a beautiful red 🫶🏻
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#strawberrythief #historicdesigns #britishdesign #kelmscottmanor
Gorgeous Golden Lily, designed in 1897, it’s been a timelessly popular design ever since but did you know that it really increased in popularity in the 1960s when the Beatles George Harrison wore a Golden Lily shirt? ✨
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#goldenlily #wmorris #georgeharrison #englishsummer #englishdesign
Daisy is a special one to many as it was the second ever design Morris created, in 1864, made up of repeating drawn Meadow Daisies 🌼
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#morrisandco #preraphaelite #preraphaelites #daisy #daisydesign
We print Willow Bough in this beautiful blue and also in green 🌿 First designed in 1887, it was first produced as a wallpaper design which May Morris, Williams daughter, used to decorate her bedroom before being adapted for fabric in 1895 when it was block printed in Merton Abbey 🌿
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#maymorris #mertonabbey #mertonabbeymills #willowbough
Trellis is a special design as it was the first wallpaper he designed for his company, Morris & Co. In 1864 🌿 It was inspired by the rose trellis in the garden of his stunning home @redhousent that he co designed with his friend and architect, Philip Webb
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#philipwebb #redhouse #trellis #rosetrellis
We print Mallow in a wine colourway and this beautiful forest green colour ✨ It was first printed in 1879 and used to hang in the wonderful Arts & Crafts home, @standennt in the Croxley bedroom 🫶🏻
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#a
you’ve got to make everything an event, including breakfast! 🥐
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On the table;
Willow Bough blue placemats- £38.99
Willow Bough blue napkins- £20.99 ✨
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #willowbough #preraphaelites #floralhome
Have you seen our forest green colourways of Mallow and Brother Rabbit? 🌿 We brought them out last year and were so happy that they’re ever so popular with everyone 💚 This week we’ve also got a 10% discount running on our website with code: floralsummer 🌅
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #wmorris #williammorrisdesign #preraphaelite
Did you know all our fabrics are printed and all our products manufactured in the UK? 🤍 It’s important to us that our William Morris fabrics are all high quality and the printed colours all beautiful to ensure all his designs live on timelessly to a high standard 🇬🇧
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Products featured; our Daisy William Morris tea towel - £10.99 ✨
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#williammorris #wmorris #morris #floralteatowel #floralhome
A moment for the greens! 💚 Can you name all these beautiful green William Morris designs? 🌿 All digitally printed here in the UK 🇬🇧 The good thing seeing them all together is you can see which work together for a sewing project or quilt, or layered together for your next tablescape! 🫧
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabric #preraphaelites #floralfabrics
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