Print this page

Morris, Jane, 1839-1914

Detail of a silk and linen hanging (267 x 150 cm) decorated with a honeysuckle motif, designed by William Morris in 1876, and embroidered by Jane and their daughter Jenny Morris, c. 1880's. This piece was displayed at the 1914 Louvre exhibition of British and Irish decorative needlework. Detail of a silk and linen hanging (267 x 150 cm) decorated with a honeysuckle motif, designed by William Morris in 1876, and embroidered by Jane and their daughter Jenny Morris, c. 1880's. This piece was displayed at the 1914 Louvre exhibition of British and Irish decorative needlework. Copyright William Morris Gallery, London, acc. no. F434.

Jane Morris (née Burden; 1839-1914) was the wife of William Morris (1834-1896), and the model and muse for both her husband and for the Pre-Raphaelite English poet, painter and illustrator, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882). Jane Morris was also known to be an accomplished embroideress.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 'The Day Dream', with Jane Morris as model.Jane Burden was born in Oxford from a poor background. She received limited education. She married William Morris in 1859 and soon managed to educate herself and be accepted in the circles frequented by her husband. She allegedly was the model for the heroine in the 1884 novel Miss Brown, by Vernon Lee (pseudonym for Violet Paget), which again led to the character of Miss Eliza Doolittle in Bernard Shaw's 1914 play, Pygmalion (and that of the film My Fair Lady).

Digital source of illustration (retrieved 30 January 2017).

WV

The Day Dream, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1880. The model is Jane Morris. The painting is housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, acc. no. CAI.3 (online catalogue; retrieved 30 January 2017). This is the last painting completed by Rossetti. Jane is holding a sprig of honeysuckle, which may have symbolised her romantic affair with the painter. The title of the painting is also that of one of Rossetti's poems, which ends with the words: She dreams; till now on her forgotten book / Drops the forgotten blossom from her hand 

Last modified on Sunday, 26 March 2017 19:33