Lewis Foreman Day
Lewis Foreman Day (29 January 1845 – 18 April 1910) was a British decorative artist and industrial designer and an important figure in the Arts and Crafts movement.
Biography
Day was born at Peckham Rye, south London, on 29 January 1845. His father, Samuel, was a wine merchant. His mother was Mary Ann Lewis. He was educated in France, at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood and subsequently in Germany.
He was first employed as a clerk, then, at the age to twenty he worked for the glass painters and designers Lavers, Barraud and Westlake. He moved to the stained glass makers of Clayton and Bell, where he designed the cartoons. In 1870 he worked for Heaton, Butler and Bayne on the decoration of Eaton Hall, Cheshire.[1]
He started his own business in London in 1870,[1] expanding his activities beyond glass painting to a wide range of media including wallpapers for W. B. Simpson & Co., textiles for Turnbull & Stockdale, and tiles for Maw's and Pilkington's.
He was an active member of the
He was an examiner for the
He also made a critique of what he saw as un-businesslike Arts and Crafts attitudes in Moot Points, a dialogue with his friend Walter Crane.[6]
He served on the consultative committee of the Victoria and Albert Museum when it transferred to its new building in Cromwell Road in 1909, and influenced the arrangement its collections there. His own work is well represented in the museum's collection.[7]
His professional association with William Morris and other key figures of the Arts and Crafts movement, such as Crane and W. A. S. Benson, placed him at the centre of contemporary applied arts in Britain, yet, according to his biographer, Joan Maria Hanson, he became neglected in histories of the period.[8]
He married Ruth Emma Morrish In 1873. They had one child, Ruth.[1] The family are buried together on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery.
Notes
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32757. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ JSTOR 41375825.
- ^ "Review of Windows: A Book about Stained and Painted Glass by Lewis F. Day, 1897". The Quarterly Review. 189: 162–171. January 1899.
- ^ Wood 1912.
- ^ Departmental Committee on the Royal College of Art, Report of the Departmental Committee on the Royal College of Art, London: House of Commons, 1911
- ^ Moot points. Friendly Disputes on Art & Industry between Walter Crane & Lewis F. Day, London: B.T.Batsford, 1903
- ^ Victoria and Albert Museum
- ^ Joan Maria Hansen, Lewis Foreman Day (1845-1910): Unity in Design and Industry, Antique Collector's Club, 2007
References
- Wood, H. T.; Jones, Helen Caroline. "Day, Lewis Foreman (1845–1910)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32757. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Wood, Henry Trueman Wright (1912). Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co. . In