Describe the Arts and Crafts movement and how it evolved.

The writings of John Ruskin and William Morris greatly influenced the movement.  Ruskin and Morris had hoped that the regeneration of art could be brought about by a return to medieval conditions.  William Morris (1834 – 96) was an English craftsman, painter, poet, and socialist.  He was educated at oxford.  He was an apprentice to an architect and in his spare time he wrote, modelled clay, sculpted wood and stone, illuminated manuscripts, and embroidered.  In 1861 he set up a company called Morris and Co. and they produced wallpaper, textiles, stained glass, tapestries, and furniture.  He also studied under John Ruskin; an art historian who believed that true art was expression of man’s pleasure in his work and upheld the medieval period as an ideal.  He also believed that the essence of a human is to produce and be creative in their work and to remove one serves to weaken the other.  It was from Ruskin that Morris built up most of his views.  Morris captured the basis of Ruskin’s views when he said that “the art of any epoch must of necessity be the expression of it’s social life, and that the social life of the middle ages allowed the workman freedom of individual expression, which on the other hand our social life forbids him.”  That is, the rise in industrialisation had prevented the expression of the worker to be part of the piece being created.  This occurred because all human interaction with the object had been excluded from the process.

Along with the Arts and Crafts movement came the ideals of socialism of which Ruskin and Morris also wrote extensively.  These two were strongly against any use of machinery in the production of crafted household items however not everyone involved in the movement felt this way.  They simply sought to restore the workers dignity and work satisfaction.  It was mostly a middleclass revolution and was predominantly British but the Americans copied the style and made it their own.  

In Ireland the movement was popular from the 1880’s to the 1930’s.  Stylistically it is closely associated with the revived use of Celtic ornament but it also encompassed art nouveau, the legacy of the Pre-Raphaelites and some aspects of modernism.  Evidence of the movement can be seen in needlework, woodcarving, enamelling, jewellery and stained glass.  The most obvious part of the Irish movement was the use of early Christian styles with ornamental detail, which became known as the Celtic Style.  Part of the feeling for a need for reform in Britain had been to find a national style.  This was due to the culmination of several styles into one piece of architecture.  Within Britain they saw gothic as the style, which represented their nationalism.  John Ruskin saw gothic as expressive of the craftsman’s freedom, which could restore social harmony.  However we see that by the 1880’s the popularity of gothic as a national style had dissolved but the idea behind it was left behind.  The style left gothic motifs behind and adapted the architectural principles of furniture construction championed by Pugin.  Pugin was an architect and writer who also influenced the revival to a degree.  What was needed was a return to basic ancient techniques to get to the basis of the craft and strip away anything that had been added over centuries.

If we go back to Ireland, Dr. William Sullivan, President of Queen’s College, Cork, stated in1883 that ‘in the middle ages and the renaissance period the artist and workman were generally united’.  He therefore felt that the designers of the industrial period were too far removed from the workman and they had little or no knowledge of materials or processes.  This would mean that each would have to have some degree of experience within the other field in order for the work to reach it’s greatest.  

With the development of the movement its members became frustrated by the definition of art in terms of the fine arts of painting and sculpture only.  We must remember that the movement was concerned with crafts and had little or no painters or sculptors in it.  These specialities were part of other movements occurring at the time.  This left the applied and decorative arts with very low status and seemingly little importance.  This lead to the term Arts and Crafts movement being applied in 1888 at a meeting in London of a group of young members of the Royal Academy.

The works of the movement were honest, sturdy and eccentric.  A.H Muckmurdo described his aim as being to make ‘beautiful things for the homes of simple and gentle folk’.  He didn’t want to make art for the elite but goods affordable by all.  The style shows enormous evidence of a love of colour and bold effects.  These three elements combined saw a style that went for simplicity and an honesty of construction.  We can also see evidence of richness in the use of colour and precious materials such as silver, enamel, mother of pearl and glass.

An important development occurred during this movement and that was the rise of another movement called the aesthetic movement.  The two feed off each other.  The aesthetic however benefited the arts and crafts by bringing to it a much lighter touch.  It also combined Japanese styles with that of the architecture of Queen Anne, which prevented the arts and crafts movement from becoming absorbed in medieval nostalgia.  The movement allowed British artists to discover the ancient techniques of Japanese art.  The Queen Anne style is represented by redbrick houses and white woodwork with tall irregular windows leaded or enhanced with white glazing bars.  Perfection was very important to this style however it did manage to stay light, pretty and elegant.  The Japanese influence meant that the design contained simplification of line and colour.  This movement embodied the gothic revival, the arts and crafts ideal and Japanese design.  Japanese design later greatly influenced Art Nouveau in France.  By 1900 the Japanese art had been absorbed and translated.  It was revolutionary in its use of flat perspectives, the lack of detail and the asymmetrical arrangements.

Upon reaching maturity the arts and crafts movement attained greater domestic elegance and coherence.  An arts and crafts house was warm, informal and welcoming.  The movement saw the increased popularity of interior design among the middle class and homes now displayed stained glass, metal vases and studio made pottery.  By 1880 the women who attended the Queen’s institute for training and employment of educated women in Molesworth Street, Dublin were producing painted tiles for fire grates, as well as designs for lace, wall decorations and crewel work.  The interest for art furnishings within Britain faded with the outbreak of war in 1914 however the United States remained enthusiastic right up until the 1920’s.

From this movement evolved Art Nouveau, which almost defines the arts and crafts movement as a whole.  Art Nouveau was it’s climax.  This is seen in the obvious characteristics of lines based on flora and fauna.  It reached its height around 1900 when it was most popular in continental Europe and the United States.  As a style it brought together the applied arts, architecture, and decoration of all types.  The style was seen at it’s best in the works of artists such as Louis Comfort Tiffany, Pierre Bonnard, Edourd Vuillard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Gustav Klimit, and Edvard Munch and in architecture it can be seen in the works of Victor Horta, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Antonio Gaudi.  Art Nouveau was all about newness however it drew major inspiration from ancient oriental art and early Christian art.  The English Arts and Crafts movement influenced the major innovators from the movement.  It can definitely be said that the roots of Art Nouveau lay in it.

I have shown here the changes that took place within the art world regarding subject matter and the techniques employed by the artists.  It is thanks to this movement that we can now appreciate crafts such as embroidery, pottery, and glassware as art forms.  The beauty is that they can be owned by everyone and be part of their homes unlike before where an expensive painting was only bought by members of the elite.  The style of the movement is also intriguing in its simplicity and beauty of shape and line with vibrant colours.

BIBLIOGAPHY

• Eisenman, Stephen F., Nineteenth Century Art, A Critical History, Thames and Hudson, 2000.
• Gombrich E.H., The Story of Art, Phiadon, 1996.
• Anscombe, Isabelle, Arts and Crafts Style, Phiadon Press Ltd., 1991.
• Larmour, Paul, The Arts and Crafts movement in Ireland, Friar’s Bush Press, 1992.
• Sternau, Susan A., Art Nouveau, Tiger Books International London, 1996.

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