The Rebel Blooms of a Radical Romantic

William Morris wasn’t just a designer or a poet or a political firebrand - he was all of those things, wrapped in a velvet cloak of pre-Raphaelite passion and Victorian idealism.

Best known today for his gorgeous floral patterns that still adorn wallpaper and textiles, Morris brought beauty into the everyday. But behind the blooms was a man whose artistic vision was radical, romantic, and quietly rebellious.

Born in 1834, Morris came of age during the Industrial Revolution, a time when art and craftsmanship were often sacrificed at the altar of mechanization. Appalled by the mass-produced ugliness he saw all around, Morris set out to revive the dignity of handmade art. To him, beauty wasn't frivolous; it was essential nourishment for the soul. Inspired by medieval guilds and the natural world, he helped found the Arts and Crafts Movement, championing craftsmanship, simplicity, and the honest labour of human hands. In doing so, he laid the groundwork for everything from Bauhaus to modern-day artisanal culture.

But let’s talk about his flowers. Apparently, he sucked at figural art, but Morris’ floral designs were incomparable. They're not dainty little Victorian posies; they’re wild gardens, overgrowing with life. His patterns feature tangled vines, twisting stems, leaves in motion, and petals that seem to breathe. They’re truly beautiful. And they echo his belief that nature shouldn’t be tamed, but celebrated.

In the Victorian era Morris' flowers were celebrated as a total revelation, and no-one since has matched them.

Today, even if they don't know his name, people around the world recognize and love Morris’ designs. But the entanglements of his private life aren’t so well known. Chief among them was his … shall we say “unorthodox” friendship with Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the tempestuous co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Morris deeply admired Rossetti’s work, and in many ways, Rossetti’s style was the inspiration behind Morris’ early creative works. What’s not widely known is that things got a little complicated in the Morris household when Rossetti began an affair with Morris’ wife, Janie. She was a striking, red-haired beauty who became Rossetti’s artistic muse and life model, and who featured in a number of his most iconic works.

Janie Morris is perhaps best known in Rosetti's depiction of the Roman goddess Proserpine, painted in 1874. This is a stunning portrait, now housed in the Tate Museum in London. Morris never officially recorded what he thought about his wife and his best friend openly having an affair, but he did invite Rossetti to live with them, an arrangement that totally defied Victorian propriety and would probably raise an eyebrow or two today.

Many people have heard of Morris’ famous statement "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." 

He said this in 1880, as part of a lecture entitled The Beauty of Life. It perfectly captures his philosophy of design and living, which emphasized craftsmanship and the marriage of beauty with function.

Whether minimalist or maximalist, it’s been the mantra for interior designers around the world, ever since.

From April to September 2025, there’s a fabulous exhibition at the William Morris Gallery in London, called The Artistry of 19th Century Cotton Prints. It’s part of the Gallery’s 75th anniversary celebrations and part of the larger Morris Mania exhibition that’s exploring all facets of his work.

And in celebration of that, seeing how most of us can’t make it to London right now to see the exhibition for ourselves, I’m offering the best of the Exhibition’s posters on my website. They feature some of his most famous designs, and they’re gorgeous.

Just visit

https://www.frenchandvintage.biz/pictures-repro-william-morris to have a browse.

All of these high-resolution images are available as digital downloads for only $2.99, for you to print yourself, use as screen savers, or whatever you like.

But if you’d prefer me to print them for you, they’re also available in a range of sizes, from A3 to large A0 poster, all reasonably priced. I post to everywhere.

What will be your favourite? I can’t decide!