This page will introduce you to some of the leading members of the Arts and Crafts movement in England and the United States. It is a “Who’s Who” of sorts but with more information, lots of pictures, resources, links, and even videos to introduce you to the beginnings of modernism in the late 19th through early 20th centuries.
For additional information, See Part 1
of The Arts & Crafts Movement: More than an Architectural and Interior Design Style. (Link opens in a new window.)
Photo above is a detail from a piece entitled Arts and Crafts Tree I.
It is available at in a variety of formats.
William Morris
William Morris (1834-1896) was a forerunner of the Arts & Crafts movement, which organically grew out of his late Art Nouveau and designs. Morris was a prolific English textile designer, artist, writer, illustrator, medievalist and socialist. He founded a design firm in partnership with the Pre-Raphaelite artists Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the architect Philip Webb. Along with the Kelmscott Press, which he began in 1891, Morris & Co. produced books, textiles, wallpapers, and other items.
You can buy the picture of William Morris you see here at .
More About William Morris and The Arts & Crafts Movement
William Morris
and
Morris & Co.
William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Home
The
Beautiful
Necessity
News from Nowhere and Other Writings
(Penguin Classics)
The
William Morris Collection
William Morris:
Romantic to Revolutionary
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (1819-1900) was a philosopher, artist and a critic of art and design, writer, lecturer, philantropist, preservationist, traveler and teacher with interests ranging from architecture and botany to geology and utopianism. Ruskin was one of the leading proponents of the style, promoting a “Protestant” Gothic style that countered Pugin’s Roman Catholic influenced designs. He was admired by William Morris, the Pre-Raphaelites (many of whom he supported financially), and the Arts & Crafts/Craftsman movement.
Ruskin’s scope was global and his prolific writings were influential around the world. His work was translated and written about by Proust, Tolstoy, and Ghandi, among many other notable literary and historic figures. In Japan, Ryuzo Mikimoto (of the Mikimoto Pearl interior designer enterprise) commissioned sculptures and other items of Ruskin and his works, incorporated his designs NHL jerseys wholesale into his jewelry line, established the Ruskin Society of Tokyo and built a library to house his Ruskin collection. Ruskin is definitely worth reading and learning more about. In 2019 the bicentennial of his birth will be celebrated.
Photo of John Ruskin (above) is
Gustav Stickley
Gustav Stickley (1858 – 1942) was inspired by John Ruskin, William Morris and his company during a trip to Europe in 1895. He soon developed their aesthetic into a distinctly American utilitarian style that bears his name. Stickley pieces are usually made of quarter sawn oak and have strong rectilinear lines.
His Craftsman style interior design ideas furniture ranged from slatted “Mission” style seating and desks to simple bedframes with long tapered bedposts. Stickley furniture was often constructed using mortise-and-tenon joinery and hammered-metal hardware. Upholstered pieces were finished in natural, simple materials ranging from leather to sturdy hand-printed woven fabrics. (Continued below)
From 1901 to 1916, he also published a design magazine with New York’s Syracuse University professor Irene Sargent as editor. The magazine’s coverage included homes and home crafts, literature and music, architecture, city planning, social conditions and progressive political issues. He was a staunch conservationish and advocate for women’s rights and the fair treatment of employees. Allthough not a socialist, Stickley seems to have promoted a lot of the same concepts and causes that the socialists supported.
or Learn More and Even Build Your Own Stickley Style Furnishings
Stickley Style:
Arts and Crafts Homes in the Craftsman Tradition
Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture:
27 Stickley Designs for Every Room
Stickley Craftsman Furniture Catalogs
Early L. & J. G. Stickley Furniture:
interior home design From Onondaga Shops to Handcraft
Roycroft, founded by Elbert Hubbard, meaning was a community of a community of printers, furniture makers, metalsmiths, leathersmiths, bookbinders, and similar artists and craftsmen. Roycraft, a part of the Arts and Crafts movement, was founded by Elbert Hubbard in 1895 in East Aurora, New York.
The name “Roycroft” was chosen by Hubbard because it meant “KIng’s Craft.” In the medieval European guilds, king’s craftsmen were guild members who, by virtue of their excellence, were chosen to make items for the King. The Roycroft insignia was borrowed from Cassidorius, a 13th century monk who was a master bookbinder and illuminator. It adorned Roycroft products ranging from furniture to.
The Roycrofters, as they were known, had a strong influence on the development of American design and architecture in the early 20th century. The community attracted over 500 members at its peak, but declined rapidly when Hubbard and his wife, the suffragette Alice Moore Hubbard, died in 1915 when the RMS Lusitania sank. Today the 14 buliding Roycroft campus is on the and houses a museum and research center.
The advertisement on the right (above) is for wood chairs with Spanish leather seats made by the Roycrofters. The price is listed as $20.00 each or $35.00 for the pair in oak. Mahogany cost $24.00 each and $42.00 for the pair. You can get your own copy .
For More About Roycroft We Recommend
Roycroft Campus, The
(NY)
(Images of America)
Roycroft Accessories in Copper and Leather:
The 1919 Catalog
Roycroft
Art
Metal
More Roycroft Art Metal:
With Price Guide
(A Schiffer Book for Collectors)
Walter Crane
Walter Crane (1845-1915) was an artist, illustrator, and designer. His work ranged from illustrations for children’s books and weekly cartoons for three Socialist publications to wallpapers, textiles, and home decorating items.
Like William Morris, Crane’s goal was to bring art into the daily life of all classes. He was a calligrapher, painter, engraver, and an expert craftsman in plaster relief, ceramic tiles, stained glass, and pottery,
Crane founded The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society in 1888. He illustrated posters and pamphlets for socialist causes and for the Healthy and Artistic Dress Union, a movement begun in 1890, that sought to promote loose-fitting utilitarian clothing instead of the heavy, stiff, and tight garments of the corseted Victorian era. One brochure he illustrated was entitled How to Dress Without a Corset.
Photo of Walter Crane is available at
Learn More About Walter Crane A Versatile, Prolific, and Fascinating Artist
The Art & Illustration of Walter Crane
Walter Crane:
The Arts and Crafts, Painting, and Politics
(The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art)
The claims of decorative art
Walter Crane:
The Arts and Crafts, Painting, and Politics
(The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art)
Line & form
Charles Rennie Macintosh
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) was a Scottish architect, artist, and designer. Japanese design and Art Nouveau were two of his major influences. Although today he is considered part of the Arts & Crafts movement, his work was not that popular during his lifetime and many of his designs were never brought to fruition. In the decades since his death, Mackintosh designs have grown in popularity,
Photo is “A Rare and Important High-Back Oak Chair circa 1898-1899″ by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. You can find this picture in a variety of sizes and formats
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1949) is often identified with the Arts and Crafts movement. He was a leader of the Prairie School of architecture and design, which was a mid-western strongly related to Craftsman style. The two “schools” shared an interest in hand crafting and skills in reaction to the mass production of the industrial age. They also shared the view that buildings should look like they grew naturally from the site they were built on. The Prairie School was the result of a conscious attempt to develop an indigenous American style of architecture that did not borrow heavily from earlier European classical architecture. Wright felt that strong horizontal lines were distinctly American because the U.S. had an abundance of open, undeveloped land as opposed to more urbanized European nations.
Photo is from . The book is available at
The Wright Stuff on Amazon
50 Favorite Rooms By Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright:
Complete Works, Vol. 1, 1885-1916
Fallingwater
Frank Lloyd Wright:
A Film By Ken Burns and Lynn Novick
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Glass Designs
(Wright at a Glance)
Proud to be the Home Decor Squid Angel
We are honored to have earned our wings in March, 2011 and hope you’ll take a look at to see some of the best lenses we’ve found in our neighborhoods and as a visitor to other areas on Squidoo.
Special thanks to Steve for the
used in this module.
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