Violet and Columbine (1883): Art, History and Details

Violet and Columbine (1883) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is William Morris (British, 1834–1896).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Morris envisioned textiles such as Violet and Columbine hanging in heavy folds, the rich colors and flowing pattern suggesting a garden wall. He strongly preferred experimenting with natural dyes instead of using the garish chemical ones that had become standard in industrialized England. Even though organic dyes were expensive and scarce, and required dyers to revive old methods, they were less likely to fade in the light or during washing, and they were capable of producing more subtle tonal effects. A sense of the process of hand-weaving can be understood by looking at the back of this textile. The warp (up and down) threads are light blue and green—visible at the bottom. The textile was woven in long lengths that could be cut at these passages of loose thread. The weft (side to side) threads in several colors, including red, pink, yellow, and blue, are more visible from the back than the front, where they disappear into the pattern.

Object facts

• Title: Violet and Columbine
• Date: 1883
• Creator attribution: William Morris (British, 1834–1896)
• Culture: England, Surrey, Merton Abbey
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Wool and mohair: jacquard loom woven weft-faced twill, double cloth
• Dimensions: Overall: 73.7 x 101 cm (29 x 39 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Textiles
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1934.329

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Philip White

Further reading listed by the museum

• Korkow, Cory, Victoria Hepburn, and William Morris. William Morris: Designing an Earthly Paradise. 2017.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.