Artist: Philip Speakman Webb
Date: 1860
Size: 71 x 35 cm
Museum: William Morris Gallery (Walthamstow, United Kingdom)
Technique: Watercolour
This full-size drawing for an embroidered frieze was produced for Morris & Co. by Philip Webb in around 1860. Webb was primarily an architect, notably designing Morris’ Red House, but was also a gifted draughtsman with a particular interest in the natural world. As a young boy, he studied the illustrations of Thomas Bewick, the influence of whom remained evident throughout Webb’s artistic output. William Morris would often ask Webb to draw the animals within his designs for wallpapers, tapestries and textiles, recognising his superior skill. See for example ‘Trellis’, Morris’s first wallpaper design (William Morris Gallery BLA472), and ‘The Forest’, a large tapestry woven at Merton Abbey in 1887, which also incorporates a peacock into its design alongside Morris’s swirling acanthus leaves. The finished frieze, known as
Artist |
|
---|---|
Download |
|
Permissions |
Free for non commercial use. See below. |
![]() |
This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. However - you may not use this image for commercial purposes and you may not alter the image or remove the watermark. This applies to the United States, Canada, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.
|