The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 23, 2024

Strawberry Thief

Strawberry Thief

c 1936
(British, 1834–1896)
England, Merton Abbey, 20th century
plain weave cotton, discharge printed
Overall: 88.3 x 99.1 cm (34 3/4 x 39 in.)
Gift of Mrs. Henry Chisholm 1937.696
Location: not on view

Description

Perhaps the most recognizable of Morris’s textiles, Strawberry Thief celebrates the thrushes in Kelmscott Manor’s garden. May Morris remarked, “You can picture my Father going out in the early morning and watching the rascally thrushes at work on the fruit beds and telling the gardener who growls, ‘I’d like to wring their necks!’ that no bird in the garden must be touched.” With Strawberry Thief, Morris perfected the indigo-discharge process, which required the entire cloth to be dyed blue before it was bleached and block printed, in this case with more colors than any of his other textiles.
  • Parry, Linda. William Morris Textiles. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1983. p. 155, no 46
    Korkow, Cory. "Textiles." IN William Morris: Designing an Earthly Paradise. Cory Korkow and Victoria Hepburn, 8-23. Cleveland, Ohio : Cleveland Museum of Art, 2017. Mentioned: pp. 18-19; reproduced: p. 19, fig, 13.
  • William Morris: Designing an Earthly Paradise. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 24, 2017-January 14, 2019).
    Imagining the Garden. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 24, 2015-March 6, 2016).
    Transitions: 19th and Early 20th Century French and English Textiles. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 3-November 16, 1986).
    Design in Printed Textiles. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 7-September 3, 1961).
  • {{cite web|title=Strawberry Thief|url=false|author=William Morris|year=c 1936|access-date=23 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1937.696