Matthew Digby Wyatt

Matthew Digby Wyatt

Matthew Digby Wyatt

(1820 -1877)

Explore all artists in this collection

Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt (28 July 1820 – 21 May 1877) was a British architect and art historian who became Secretary of the Great Exhibition, Surveyor of the East India Company and the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge.

From 1855 until 1859 he was honorary secretary of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and in 1866 received the Royal Gold Medal.

William Morris

William Morris

William Morris

(1834 - 1896)

William Morris

(1845 - 1896)

Explore all artists in this collection

William Morris was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditional British textile arts and methods of production.

In his lifetime, Morris produced items in a range of crafts, mainly those to do with furnishing, including over 600 designs for wallpaper, textiles, and embroideries, over 150 for stained glass windows, three typefaces, and around 650 borders and ornamentations for the Kelmscott Press.

Read more about William Morris in our post: William Morris: The First Celebrity Designer?

Morris emphasised the idea that the design and production of an item should not be divorced from one another, and that, where possible, those creating items should be designer-craftsmen, thereby both designing and manufacturing their goods.

In the field of textile design, Morris revived a number of dead techniques, and insisted on the use of good quality raw materials, almost all natural dyes, and hand processing.

Explore the collection >

This post is part of our expanding FINE ARTS COLLECTION where we write about what inspires us to create the designs that we sell here on cgk.ink