Product
Description
THE ART OF MAY MORRIS -Liberty Tana Lawn® celebrates the pioneering vision of designer, embroiderer, and craftswoman, May Morris. A leading figure of the Arts and Crafts movement and daughter of legendary designer William Morris, May grew up steeped in the ethos of excellent craftsmanship and innovative design. Best known for her intricate embroidery style, May led the revival of needlework as an art form in the world of craft and was later recognised for her enticing wallpaper prints and jeweller designs. Inspired by medieval artifacts and the natural world, her work is distinguished by her organic, flowing forms. Stylised flowers and foliage exuberantly curl across May’s designs, interwoven with gothic-script quotations from ancient and modern verse, alongside silk-winged birds in flight.
Created as part of Liberty’s ongoing creative partnership with William Morris Gallery, The Art of May Morris sheds a new light on her artistic influence as a working female designer. Each design in the collection draws direct inspiration from May’s original works held in the WMG archive, reinterpreting her lighter, more fluid aesthetic that set her apart from her father’s structured compositions. Honouring both her creativity and technical prowess, the series reflects the symmetry, movement, and grace that characterised May’s designs, exhibiting the qualities that played a pivotal role in defining Liberty’s early artistic identity and continue to define the design house’s enduring heritage.
May Embroidery
Derived from an exquisite embroidery panel created by May Morris between 1890 and 1910, May Embroidery distils the essence of the Arts and Crafts tradition into a fresh adaptation. Reimagined as a print by the Liberty studio, the design retains the tactile quality of stitched thread, giving the illusion of embroidery. Its stylised roses unfurl among winding tendrils and branching stems, entwined with sculptural acanthus leaves, all set against darker coloured grounds that heighten contrast and depth.