Embroidered wall hanging of St Catherine

Along with painted furniture and murals, another decorative feature of Morris’s first married home, Red House, and later of Kelmscott Manor, was the use of embroidered textiles as wall hangings. Designed by Morris, this representation of St Catherine, is one of an ambitious set of figure panels inspired by classical sources and Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem The Legend of Good Women, which were intended to hang around the walls of the dining room at Red House. The scheme was never completed, but three of the seven surviving panels are now at Kelmscott Manor.

Artist / Maker
William Morris (1834-1869) and Jane Morris (1839-1914)
Type
object
Date
c. 1860
Material
Embroidery in silk and wool thread on linen, applied to velvet
Dimensions
180 x 136cm
Location
Kelmscott Manor