Studio: international art (45.1909)

Tapestries designed by Sir R. Burne-Jones and J. H. Dearie

pretended that the work was carried on without
intermission during the whole period, it was fully
six years in the loom before being finally completed,
and before it was ready for exhibition at the New
Gallery in the current year, 1908. Who of all that
witnessed the first germ of the idea in the Laus
Veneris of twenty years previously could possibly
have foreseen such magnificent fruition ? It is no
exaggeration to say that this one surpasses even
the finest of all Messrs. Morris & Co ’s past
achievements in tapestry.

Now it may, not unreasonably, be inquired
whether any changes or improvements have been
introduced into Merton tapestry weaving during
the twelve years elapsed since Morris’s death ?
The answer is that, in respect of material and
mode of working, there has been not only no
falling away, but no departure from the founder’s
tradition. The wools are still dyed on the spot
and with the same ingredients that Morris used,
with, if anything, a slightly more extended range of
colour. But as for the executants—most of them
old hands, two or three of them actually those who
worked with Morris from the outset—they have
attained to a degree of technical proficiency and

sureness in manipulation that comes only of long
years of practice. Many are the stumbling-blocks
that once would have been hardly circumvented,
but can now be met squarely and as triumphantly
surmounted. This remark applies particularly to
the rendering of human features ; and again, to
take the matter of colour, already mentioned, a
certain light tone of mauve, admittedly most difficult
to deal with satisfactorily, and on that account
never employed in Morris’s time, has been intro-
duced boldly and (so far as can be judged in the
yet unfinished state of the work) with complete
success in a new panel, now in the act of being
woven. It represents “The Slaying of Truth,”
from a cartoon by Mr. Byam Shaw.

A tapestry from the cartoon of another well-
known designer, Mr. Heywood Sumner, has
recently been executed. Its subject, The Chase,
is treated in a totally distinct manner from that of
Burne-Jones. The border, broken into separate
panels, with woodland birds and animals, is not
the least delightful part of the composition.

In one important regard a system has been
adopted which claims to be a definite advance on
previous methods, from those of the earliest

“THE DEPARTURE OF THE KNIGHTS” DESIGNED BY SIR E. BURNE-JONES

(“HOLY grail” SERIES) EXECUTED BY MORRIS & CO. LTD.

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