William Morris - Matthew Collings TV - Stephen Smith TV - Andrew Lloyd Webber 2011 - Alan Crawford - John Ruskin - Suzannah Lipscomb TV - The Victorian House of Arts & Crafts TV -
Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. William Morris, Hopes and Fears for Art, 1882
[William] Moriss’s designs are based on his own observations: leaves, flowers and stems … A highly original mixture of visual harmony and complexity. Matthew Collings, This is Civilisation III: Save Our Souls, BBC 2007
William Morris, craftsman, poet, publisher, designer, Socialist, all round Victorian visionary, he was the driving forces behind Arts and Crafts. Stephen Smith, Sex and Sensibility: The Allure of Art Nouveau II, BBC 2012
Morris invoked the power of Nature and our medieval past. ibid.
The very name Liberty had become a byword for the style. ibid.
The painter and teacher Archibald Knox … ibid.
Architecture: One of the foremost architects of the age was William Butterfield who completely reinterpreted medieval gothic architecture in Victorian terms ... This is Keble College, Oxford ... Amazing. Staggering. If you really don’t like it, get a life ... I will never have a word said against it. Architecture became a central part of the Arts and Crafts movement in the late nineteenth century. And the Pre-Raphaelites were keen to play an active part. Andrew Lloyd Webber, Perspectives, ITV 2011
Kelmscott Manor on the bank of the Thames ... William Morris chose it as his summer home and signed a joint lease with Rossetti ... Rossetti hated the place. ibid.
William Morris ... a complete homage to calligraphy ... The Iliad ... Astounding. All gold leaf ... Almost unbelievable ... It almost takes your breath away this detail – it’s all about beauty. ibid.
Unlike their counterparts in the United States, most Arts and Crafts practitioners in Britain had strong, slightly incoherent, negative feelings about machinery. They thought of ‘the craftsman’ as free, creative, and working with his hands, ‘the machine’ as soulless, repetitive, and inhuman. These contrasting images derive in part from John Ruskin’s (1819-1900) The Stones of Venice, an architectural history of Venice that contains a powerful denunciation of modern industrialism to which Arts and Crafts designers returned again and again. Distrust for the machine lay behind the many little workshops that turned their backs on the industrial world around 1900, using pre-industrial techniques to create what they called ‘crafts’. Alan Crawford, W A S Benson, Machinery, and the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain
I believe the right question to ask, respecting all ornament, is simply this: Was it done with enjoyment – was the carver happy while he was about it? John Ruskin, Seven Lamps of Architecture, 1849
Fine art is that in which the hand, the head and the heart of man go together. John Ruskin, The Two Paths: Lecture II
Not only is there but one way of doing things rightly, but there is only one way of seeing them, and that is, seeing the whole of them. ibid.
One of Britain’s most celebrated wallpaper designers was William Morris: a leading light of the Arts & Crafts period. Dr Suzannah Lipscomb, Hidden Killers of the Victorian Home, BBC 2013
Welcome to the late 1800s. The Arts & Crafts movement is at the height of its fame and a group of men and women are busy rewriting the rule- books of design and architecture. They wanted to make everyday objects beautiful and they left an impact on British design we still feel today … These artists, architects and political thinkers were starting a revolution. The Victorian House of Arts & Crafts I, BBC 2018
From the 1880s to the 1920s they spread their radical message across Britain. ibid.
Six modern-day crafters are on the way to their home for the next month. ibid.
‘Morris was a rebellious type, he was an idealist, and at the forefront he was a great designer.’ ibid. expert
Can they recreate the beautiful objects and high ideals of the Arts & Crafts movement by hand? The Victorian House of Arts & Crafts II
Heal’s & Sons brought the Arts & Crafts principles of beauty and craftsmanship to factory-built furniture. ibid.
Mary Seton Watts aimed to involve the whole community in her work. ibid.
Arts & Crafts designers were inspired by nature. ibid.
Even though William Morris himself took up embroidery, it was his daughter May who became head of the Embroidery Department at Morris & Co at just 23. May was a vocal advocate of the craft writing widely and lecturing in Britain and the United States. ibid.
Watts created her designs with several layers of gesso. ibid.
Arts & Crafts communities were built on the ideal of craftspeople sharing ideas and crafts. ibid.
Throwing plates on a kick-wheel is not easy. The Victorian House of Arts & Crafts III
Walter Crane: not just a pleasing design but one with a deeper social meaning. ibid.
The metalwork that Ernest Gimson produced was not only beautiful, it breathed new life into the traditional skills of blacksmithing. ibid.
The Arts & Crafts movement championed the importance of stretching the body as well as the mind. ibid.
William de Morgan spent a lifetime perfecting the skills of his craft. ibid.
Inspired by art critic John Ruskin and socialist designer William Morris they hated the drudgery and ugliness of the industrial age. The Victorian House of Arts & Crafts, BBC 2019
They positively welcomed women. ibid.