Arts and Crafts Movement

The English socialist William Morris, a leading figure of the Arts and Crafts movement, pictured in 1870. His political and artistic convictions were closely linked, and he claimed that art as ‘man's expression of his joy in labour’ was stifled by the squalid industrialism of Victorian England, although only the rich could afford to buy his expensive designs.

English social and aesthetic movement of the late 19th century that stressed the importance of manual skills and the dignity of labour. It expressed a rejection of Victorian industrialization and mass production, and a nostalgic desire to return to a medieval way of life. The movement influenced art nouveau and, less directly, the Bauhaus school of design.

Its roots lay in the ideas of the architect A W N Pugin and the art critic John Ruskin, both of whom believed that a country's art reflected its spiritual state and was damaged by the loss of traditional skills. The most important practitioner of their ideals was William Morris, who in 1861 founded the firm of Morris, Faulkner and Co., producing a wide range of high-quality goods, including fabrics, furniture, stained glass, and wallpaper. Artists who worked for the firm included Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Philip Webb.

In 1884 the Art Workers Guild was formed to bridge the gap between the ‘craftsman’ and the ‘artist’, and in 1886 several of its members founded the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, from which the movement derived its name. Both organizations sought to produce ‘art made by the people for the people’, encompassing pottery, book illustration and production, metalware, and architectural design. The Guild came to be inspired by socialism, and was led by William Morris (a member of the Socialist League) until his death in 1896. His ideas on the social importance of good design were influential, but he failed to reach the masses as such high-quality products were necessarily expensive.

Other important members included the designer and architect Charles Ashbee, the architect Norman Shaw, and the illustrator Walter Crane.