Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Kelmscott Manor



[Charles March Gere - View of the East Front of Kelmscott Manor, 1892, woodcut]
used as the frontispiece to William Morris' News from Nowhere - 1892
[Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Water Willow detail, 1871, oil on canvas, Delaware Art Museum]
Jane Morris is shown in front of Kelmscott Manor in 1871 at the height of her love affair with the artist (and whilst Morris was away in Ireland). The willow branches are a symbol, not of love, but of melancholy.
News from Nowhere was Morris' Socialist Utopian novel (still worth reading) published in Commonweal in 1889 and 1890.

1 comment:

Anon said...

Ireland? I don't think so!