Embroidery
Jane Morris (1839 - 1914)
Category
Textiles
Date
1860 - 1865
Materials
Wool and silk on linen
Measurements
120 cm (H) 43 cm (W)
Place of origin
Bexleyheath
Order this imageCollection
Red House, Kent
NT 60226
Summary
An unfinished wool and silk embroidered panel, 1860-65, designed by William Morris (1834 - 1896) and attributed to sisters Jane Morris (1839 - 1914) and Bessie Burden (1841 - 1924). The figure of Aphrodite is embroidered in vivid colours on a linen ground. Made for Red House as part of a planned series of twelve embroideries.
Full description
This unfinished embroidery depicts the naked figure of Aphrodite. It was conceived as one of a set of 12 female figures intended to hang in the dining room at Red House. Jane Morris, who married William in 1859, implied that both she and her sister, Bessie Burden, worked on the figures. She recalled: ‘we studied old pieces and by unpicking etc., we learnt much – but it was uphill work, fascinating, but only carried through by [William Morris’] enormous energy and perseverance.’ [British Library Add MS 45341]. 7 of the 12 figures survive today: there is no evidence that the other 5 were begun. ‘St Catherine’, ‘Guenevere’ or ‘Isoude’ (also unfinished) and ‘Penelope’ are at Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire; ‘Queen with Sword’, ‘Hippolyte’ and ‘Flamma Troiae’ at Castle Howard, Yorkshire. Rough sketches for the decorative hangings, showing figures with trees between them and flowers at their feet, can be found in an undated Morris notebook at the British Library [Add MS 45336]. The figure is embroidered in a flesh-coloured wool with ankle length red hair in two shares of red/brown wool. Hatching on the legs and body in a tan colour adds definition. A girdle has been worked separately, roughly cut out with an unfinished edging, and attached with tacking stitches over a painted design. The green leaves are worked in silk. The design was traced from a cartoon onto the fabric. Painted and pencil marks are visible to the right of the head – two pink flowers and a nose and lips in profile. Had the work been finished, the maker would have cut the excess linen ground fabric from the embroidered figure and applied the embroidery to a woollen background.
Provenance
Purchased at auction by the National Trust in 2007.
Makers and roles
Jane Morris (1839 - 1914), maker Elizabeth 'Bessie' Burden (1841 - 1924), maker
References
Fairclough, Oliver. Textiles by William Morris and Morris & Co 1861-1940. 1981.