A visit to
Glessner House reveals the inseparable connection between the designs of
William Morris and of Frances Glessner’s decoration for her new home. It has
often been said that the Glessners were a bit ahead of the curve in Chicago in
embracing the use of Morris & Co. wallpapers, textiles, and rugs, although
such items were gaining favor on the East Coast. There is little surprise here
as the Glessners were hardly followers of the popular trends of the day including
the reliance on anything of French origin. Instead, they actively studied and
developed an aesthetic of their own that is still well reflected in their carefully
preserved home.
This leads
one to ponder what the average Chicagoan would have known about William Morris
in the 1870s and early 1880s. In this first of three articles focusing on
Morris, we will look to the Chicago Tribune to see what was written
about him, only to discover that the decorative arts was only a small part of a
larger dialogue that included Morris as poet and Socialist.
The
Defense of Guinevere
One of the
first references to Morris appears in a review of new volumes of poetry in the
Literature column on May 22, 1875. A reprint of The Defense of Guinevere,
and Other Poems had just been released “without alteration from the edition
of 1858.” The reviewer noted that “admirers of the noble narrative poems, ‘The
Life and Death of Jason,’ and ‘The Earthly Paradise,’ will read with interest
the volume of Mr. Morris’ earliest metrical compositions.” The reference to
other well-known poems of Morris is followed by the note that his first works,
which received less attention at the time of their release, as he was an
unknown at the time, were now worthy of a second look, no doubt the reason for
the reprint. Of the collection, the reviewer concludes, “Most of these embalm
in verse the pleasing legends of King Arthur and his knights of the round
table, while all of them show the author’s remarkable command of the simple,
pellucid Saxon.”
Morris
returned to the collection of poems in 1892, when it was reprinted as one of
the first volumes published by his renowned Kelmscott Press. Many scholars have
noted Morris’s ongoing interest in the story and have made the connection
between the love triangle of Arthur, Guenevere, and Lancelot to a similar
triangle composed of William Morris, his wife Jane, and their friend, the
painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. This final edition under Morris’s own hand,
shown below, is beautifully printed with woodcut borders and initials.
Aeneids
of Virgil
Morris was
also known for his translations and later in 1875 published his complete
translation of Virgil’s Aeneid, the epic Latin poem composed between 29 and 19
B.C. It was no small feat – the original is composed of 9,896 lines of verse
written in dactylic hexameter. The review in the Tribune quotes from the
Graphic which stated, “it is almost impossible to conceive of a version
more fluent, rhythmical, and supremely beautiful.”
The review
then goes into a rather extended discussion of Morris’s use of tobacco, noting
that “It is an interesting fact that Morris always writes under the influence
of ‘the baneful weed’ – tobacco. . . When the smoke is thickest, the poetry is
best.”
Household
art
In the May 14,
1876 edition of the Tribune, we find the first mention of Morris as
decorator, in this case for his wallpaper designs. In an article entitled
“Household Art” written by John J. McGrath, the owner of Chicago’s leading
decorating firm, he notes:
“I have
procured, by direct importation, a large stock of the Morris and Dresser
papers, being the only examples of these designs to be found in this country,
executed under the immediate supervision of these ‘art specialists,’ and far
excelling in purity of drawing and beauty of coloring anything heretofore
presented to the disciples of artistic truths, I cordially commend them to the
notice of all who are desirous of escaping from the thralldom of ill-conceived
and badly executed designs in wall dressing.”
It is
interesting to note that Frances Glessner was a regular customer of McGrath,
acquiring wallpapers for her Washington Street home at exactly this time, and
probably later for the Big House at The Rocks as well. This would have been her
introduction to Morris’s designs, although there is no evidence that she
considered any Morris wallpapers until 1883, as we shall see next week.
The
Morris mantra
“Have
nothing in your houses which you do not know to be useful or believe to be
beautiful.”
Morris’s
mantra is carefully written – the usefulness of an object is something that is
easily determined – a pitcher can hold and pour water; a clock keeps time. But
the beauty of an object is subjective, one person may believe it to be
beautiful, another may not. The concept became central to the Arts & Crafts
movement in highlighting the significance of the decorative arts, and the
importance of giving artistic consideration to the creation of all items – not
just fine arts, but the everyday objects that surround the average person in
their home.
An
interesting article from April 1882, which at first glance has nothing to do
with Morris, noted a large collection of “beautiful objects of art in the shape
of foreign bronzes, carvings, exquisite china and porcelain, old tapestries,
rugs, and odd bric-a-brac from every corner of the world, sent on to Chicago
from the well-known establishment of Sypher & Co., New York, and to remain
on view until next Wednesday, when it will be sold under the hammer.”
The
anonymous writer of the column spends considerable time describing many of the
objects and their inherent beauty. However, at the close, he turns to Morris
and his famous mantra (which was apparently known well-enough for the reference)
to consider both the beauty and usefulness of the objects. He writes:
“If everyone
heeded the advice of William Morris, to admit nothing into their houses that
they did not know to be useful and believe to be beautiful, some of these would
have to be excluded on the score of usefulness.”
William
Morris the preservationist
Morris was
deeply concerned about the state of preservation in the latter half of the 19th
century in England. In 1877, Morris and several friends formed The Society for
the Protection of Ancient Buildings in response to what he viewed as “destructive
restoration.” This process involved removing later alterations to return buildings
to an idealized original state, which may or may not have ever actually existed.
Morris felt strongly that the later alterations were part of the history of the
structure and advocated for repair and maintenance over the destructive
restoration practices. The Society still exists today, and Morris’s principles
are now widely accepted.
An article
in the February 28, 1883 Chicago Tribune reprinted comments made by Morris
regarding the announced demolition of the famous Ponte Vecchio in Florence,
Italy because it was deemed unsafe and might collapse during flooding. Morris’s
comments in part read as follows:
“We need
hardly point out, the unrivaled historical interest and artistic beauty of this
world-famed bridge, with its three graceful arches crowned by a picturesque
group of houses, over which is carried the long passage connecting the Pitti
and Uffizi Palaces. Not only the arches of the bridge, but portions of some of
the houses, are still preserved exactly as designed by Taddeo Gaddi, and built
in A. D. 1362 – an object of the greatest beauty both when seen close at hand
and as one of the chief features in the glorious distant view from San Miniato
. . . it certainly would not be beyond the skill of modern engineers to
underpin and secure the falling piers.”
William
Morris and his discontent
Morris wrote
and lectured extensively on the current state of art. In March 1883, a
paragraph in the London Life column of the Chicago Tribune, written
by special correspondent Robert Laird Collier, noted Morris’s discontent with
the current state of art. It is so well written that it is reproduced here in
its entirety:
“William
Morris has been talking about ‘blackguardly houses.’ This William Morris is in
his way a ‘regular caution.’ He is poet, painter, house-decorator, shopkeeper,
lyceum lecturer. He designs wallpapers, stuffs for curtains, carpets, and sells
these designs or the manufactured articles. He keeps a shop where one can get
the most artistic furniture, and, I believe, one can out of his shop furnish
one’s house from top to bottom. He has just been down to Manchester lecturing
at a conversazione of art and literary societies. He said he was so
discontented at the present condition of art and the matter was so serious that
he desired to make other people share in his discontent. He singled out
Bournemouth, a fashionable watering seaside resort, and said the houses of the
rich there were blackguardly! Whew! What would he say of Vanderbilt’s wallpaper
with its diamond dust! What would he say of a Chicago ‘marble front’ house, a
‘back yard’ twenty feet by twenty, and an – alley. But thank God for the
iconoclast. He is a nuisance, but he comes before the revolutionists, and the
revolutionist comes before the reformer.”
The term
‘blackguardly,’ not widely used today, referred to something lacking principles
or scruples, W. M. Thackeray (author of the 1848 novel Vanity Fair) referring
to it as “the tyranny of a scoundrelly aristocracy.”
Morris
the Socialist
The
reference to Morris as iconoclast was appropriate. Most of the references in
the Chicago Tribune by the mid-1880s referred not to his work as
house-decorator, but to his belief in Socialism, of which he was a leading and
outspoken proponent. In February 1885, the Chicago Tribune reprinted a
song written by William Morris entitled “The March of the Workers” that had
just been published in the English Socialist journal, the Commonwealth.
Sung to the tune of “John Brown” (the same tune used for the Battle Hymn of the
Republic), it consisted of eight verses and chorus. Beautifully written and
displaying his talents as a poet, we reprint here the first and last verse plus
the chorus.
“What is
this, the sound and rumor? What is this that all men hear,
Like the
wind in hollow valleys when the storm is drawing near,
Like the
rolling on of ocean in the eventide of fear?
‘Tis the
people marching on.
“On we march
then, we the workers, and the rumor that ye hear,
Is the
blended sound of battle and deliv’rance drawing near?
For the hope
of every creature is the banner that we bear,
And the
world is marching on.
Chorus:
“Hark, the rolling of the thunder!
“Hark, the rolling of the thunder!
Lo, the sun!
and lo, thereunder
Riseth
wrath, and hope, and wonder,
And the host
comes marching on.”
William Morris
the Socialist was quoted even more frequently in the newspaper following the
Haymarket affair/riot in May 1886. A particularly strong statement, issued in
the Commonwealth by Morris on November 12, 1887, the day after four of
the “anarchists” were executed was addressed “To the Well-to-Do People of America,”
and read in part:
“If you are
sure that henceforward the workingmen of your country will live placid and
happy lives, then you need think no more of the murder you have committed, for
a happy people cannot take vengeance, however grievously they have been
wronged; but if it be so with you, as with other nations of civilizations that
your workers toil without reward and without hope, oppressed with sordid
anxiety for mere livelihood, depraved of the due pleasures of humanity; if
there is yet suffering and wrong amongst you, then take heed; increase your
army of spies and informers; hire more reckless swashbucklers to do your will;
guard every approach to your palace of pleasure without scruple and without mercy,
and yet you will but put off for a while the certain vengeance of ruin that
will overtake you, and your misery and suffering, which to you in your
forgetfulness of your crimes will then seem an injustice, will have to be the
necessary step on which the advance of humanity will have to mount to happier
days beyond . . . You have sown the wind, you must reap the whirlwind.”
William
Morris a bit soured
By now we
have seen that William Morris was a man of strong opinions on a range of
topics. To close this week, we return briefly to his thoughts on art. Perhaps
of most interest is how he is introduced in the first sentence of a short Tribune article from May 1886 –
poet, Socialist, and artistic designer – in that order. One cannot help but
wonder if he would have introduced himself the same way. His quote, from a London
talk given a few days earlier:
“During the
last forty years people have conscientiously striven to raise the taste in art,
yet the world is growing uglier and more commonplace.”
NEXT WEEK
We do not
know the extent to which Frances Glessner was aware of William Morris’s
Socialist beliefs, or if she read his poetry, but in 1883 she began to study
his views on art. The commissioning of H. H. Richardson to design the Glessner
home in 1885 significantly strengthened that interest.
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