wall tile
William Frend de Morgan 1839 - 1917
Summary
Four tiles with a variety of floral designs in hand-transferred underglaze 'Persian' colours: blue, green, purple and iron-red. Two of the four tiles (decorated with a red peony design and with roses) are missing. Of the remaining two, one is a dust-pressed blank, merely decorated by De Morgan with a blue trellis design on a white slip ground and two blue 'tulips' in opposite corners with green foliage. The other tile is plastic-bodied and smaller, with a design of a purple peony/poppy and green foliage on a white slip ground. It is clear that these tiles were never originally intended as a set.
Display Label
Gallery text panel The Pre-Raphaelites in their Time Britain's first and best-known radical art movement emerged from within the Royal Academy in 1848. Its original members were rebellious art students who were disillusioned with contemporary practice. They looked back to Italian art before Raphael, seeing the pre-1500 period as one of great sincerity. They called themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In an age of rapid industrial and urban expansion, Pre-Raphaelite artists like Rossetti, Hunt and Millais, and pioneering design reformers such as William Morris, sought a return to pre-industrial values of art and design in truth to nature and materials, and good workmanship. In addition, the arts of the Middle Ages and Middle East were important sources of stylistic inspiration. The Bible, literature and contemporary life were preferred over subjects derived from classical mythology. The Brotherhood also rejected contrived studio lighting and took canvases outside to paint directly from nature. Although attempting to convey exactly what they saw, they created a heightened reality of dream-like intensity with minute details and bright, dazzling colours. Their art was a new kind of history painting for a new age.
Object Name
wall tile
Creators Name
Date Created
1882=1888 (production of 'Poppy' tile) & 1870=1875 (circa)(de
Dimensions
object: 12.8cm x 12.8cm
accession number
1918.301
Collection Group
Place of creation
Merton Abbey
Medium
On Display
[G7] Manchester Art Gallery - Gallery 7
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Credit
Transferred from the Horsfall Museum Collection, 1918
Legal
© Manchester Art Gallery