Artwork Page for Strawberry Thief

Details / Information for Strawberry Thief

Strawberry Thief

c 1936
designer

William Morris

(British, 1834–1896)
Culture
England, Merton Abbey, 20th century
Medium
plain weave cotton, discharge printed
Measurements
Overall: 88.3 x 99.1 cm (34 3/4 x 39 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Henry Chisholm 1937.696
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

Perhaps the most recognizable of Morris’s textiles, Strawberry Thief celebrates the thrushes in Kelmscott Manor’s garden. May Morris remarked, “You can picture my Father going out in the early morning and watching the rascally thrushes at work on the fruit beds and telling the gardener who growls, ‘I’d like to wring their necks!’ that no bird in the garden must be touched.” With Strawberry Thief, Morris perfected the indigo-discharge process, which required the entire cloth to be dyed blue before it was bleached and block printed, in this case with more colors than any of his other textiles.
Indigo blue textile patterned with an even spread of light green and blue foliage overlaid with light orange-yellow and red flowers and stylized thrushes, songbirds with yellow beaks and yellow, brown-speckled bodies. The textile features two columns of a pattern of thrushes in three rows of two. The upper and lower rows feature back-to-back thrushes with blue wings among stylized strawberries. The central thrushes have orange wings, facing a central flower.

Strawberry Thief

c 1936

William Morris

(British, 1834–1896)
England, Merton Abbey, 20th century

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