John Henry Dearle
John Henry Dearle | |
---|---|
Born | Camden Town, London, England | August 22, 1859
Died | January 15, 1932 | (aged 72)
Nationality | British |
Other names | J. H. Dearle |
Education | William Morris |
Known for | Textile and stained-glass designer at Morris & Co. |
John Henry Dearle (22 August 1859 – 15 January 1932) was a British
Morris's reputation overshadowed Dearle's work throughout Dearle's career: Dearle exhibited early patterns under Morris's name and Dearle designs continue to be sold as Morris patterns. Critical assessment of Dearle's work then underwent a significant change during the final decades of the twentieth century, recognizing Dearle's mature work as having a unique artistic vision of its own. Dearle always remained close to Morris's aesthetic, but from the 1890s onward he incorporated a distinctive set of
Career
Dearle was born in Camden Town, north London, in 1859.[2] He began his career as an assistant in Morris & Co.'s retail showroom in Oxford Street in 1878,[3] and then transferred to the company's glass painting workshop, where he worked mornings and studied design in the afternoons.[1] Morris recognized Dearle's talents as a draftsman, and took him on as his tapestry apprentice. Morris had finished his first solo effort at tapestry in September 1879,[4] and shortly thereafter Morris and Dearle set up a tapestry loom at Queen Square. Dearle executed Morris & Co.'s first figural tapestry from a design by Walter Crane in 1883.[1] Dearle was soon responsible for the training of all tapestry apprentices in the workshop and partnered with Morris on designing details such as fabric patterns and floral backgrounds for tapestries based on figure drawings or cartoons by Burne-Jones (some of them repurposed from stained glass cartoons)[4] and animal figures by Philip Webb.
In the late 1880s, Dearle began designing repeating patterns for wallpapers and textiles, and it is likely that his designs for large-scale embroideries also date from around this time.[5]
From 1890, Dearle was head designer for the firm, handling interior design commissions and supervising the tapestry, weaving, and fabric-printing departments at Merton Abbey[6] He was appointed Art Director of Morris & Co. following Morris's death in 1896. Dearle managed the company's textile works at Merton Abbey until his death in 1932.[3]
Designs
Fabric and wallpaper designs attributed to Henry Dearle include Cherwell (registered 1887), Trent (1888), Persian Brocatel (c. 1890), Daffodil (c. 1891), Compton (1896), Tulip (1895-1900), Artichoke (1897), and Persian or New Persian (1905).[7]
Dearle also designed embroidery panels for screens and
Critical assessment
Henry Dearle's contributions to textile design were long overshadowed by the towering figure of William Morris. However, Dearle originally exhibited his designs under the Morris name rather than his own, especially in the Arts and Crafts Exhibitions and the major Morris retrospective of 1899,[3][8] and even today many Dearle designs are popularly offered as "William Morris" patterns.
As late as 1981, the catalog of an exhibit of Morris & Co. textiles dismissed Dearle's style as "rarely more than a pastiche of his master's",
Notes
- ^ a b c Waggoner, Diane: The Beauty of Life: William Morris & the Art of Design, Thames and Hudson, 2003, p. 99–107
- ^ Parry, Linda: William Morris Textiles, p. 64
- ^ a b c Parry, Linda: Textiles of the Arts & Crafts Movement, Thames and Hudson, revised edition 2005, p. 122
- ^ a b Parry, Linda: William Morris Textiles, New York, Viking Press, p. 103–04
- ^ Parry, Linda: William Morris Textiles, p. 30–31
- ^ Parry, Linda, ed.: William Morris, Abrams, 1996, p.54
- ^ Parry, Linda: William Morris Textiles, p. 150–72
- ^ a b c d Parry, Linda: William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement: A Sourcebook, New York, Portland House, 1989, p. 9-10
- ^ Mrs. Battye was a customer of Morris & Co.
- ^ Parry, Linda, ed.: William Morris p. 248–50
- ^ Fairclough, Oliver and Emmeline Leary, Textiles by William Morris and Morris & Co. 1861–1940, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, 1981, p. 15
- ^ Day, Lewis F., "A Disciple of William Morris", Art Journal, 1905, p. 84-89, cited in Fairclough and Leary, Textiles by William Morris and Morris & Co. 1861–1940, p. 73
- ^ Parry, Linda, "Textiles", The Earthly Paradise: Arts and Crafts by William Morris and his Circle in Canadian Collections, edited by Katharine A. Lochnan, Douglas E. Schoenherr, and Carole Silver, Key Porter Books, 1993
- ^ Parry, Linda: William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement: A Sourcebook, New York, Portland House, 1989, p. 9–10 and Plate 12a
References
- Coote, Stephen: William Morris: His Life and Work, Smithmark Publishers, 1995, ISBN 1-85833-479-9
- Fairclough, Oliver and Emmeline Leary, Textiles by William Morris and Morris & Co. 1861-1940, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, 1981, ISBN 0-89860-065-0
- Parry, Linda, "Textiles", in The Earthly Paradise: Arts and Crafts by William Morris and his Circle in Canadian Collections, edited by Katharine A. Lochnan, Douglas E. Schoenherr, and Carole Silver, Key Porter Books, 1993, ISBN 1-55013-450-7
- Parry, Linda, ed.: William Morris, Abrams, 1996, ISBN 0-8109-4282-8
- Parry, Linda: William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement: A Sourcebook, New York, Portland House, 1989 ISBN 0-517-69260-0
- Parry, Linda: William Morris Textiles, New York, Viking Press, 1983, ISBN 0-670-77074-4
- Parry, Linda: Textiles of the Arts & Crafts Movement, Thames and Hudson, revised edition 2005, ISBN 0-500-28536-5
- Waggoner, Diane: The Beauty of Life: William Morris & the Art of Design, Thames and Hudson, 2003, ISBN 0-500-28434-2