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ARTS AND CRAFTS

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 701 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ARTS AND CRAFTS , a comprehensive See also:

title for the arts of decorative See also:design and handicraft—all those which, in association with the See also:mother-See also:craft of See also:building (or See also:architecture), go to the making of the See also:house beautiful. Accounts of these will be found under See also:separate headings. " Arts and crafts " are also associated with the See also:movement generally understood as the See also:English revival of decorative See also:art, which began about 1875. The title itself only came into See also:general use when the Arts and Crafts See also:Exhibition Society was founded, and held its first exhibition at the New See also:Gallery, See also:London, in the autumn of r888, since which See also:time arts and crafts exhibitions have been See also:common all over See also:Great See also:Britain. The See also:idea of forming a society for the purpose of showing See also:con-temporary See also:work in design and handicraft really arose out of a movement of revolt or protest against the exclusive view of art encouraged by the Royal See also:Academy exhibitions, in which oil paintings in gilt frames claimed almost exclusive attention—sculpture, architecture and the arts of decorative design being relegated to quite subordinate positions. In 1886, out of a feeling of discontent among artists as to the inadequacy of the Royal Academy exhibitions, considered as representing the art of Great Britain, a demand arose for a See also:national exhibition to include all the arts of design. One of the points of this demand was for the See also:annual See also:election of the See also:hanging See also:committee by the whole See also:body of artists. After many meetings the See also:group representing the arts and crafts (who belonged to a larger body of artists and craftsmen called the Art-workers' Guild, founded in 2884),' perceiving that the painters, especially the leading group of a school not hitherto well represented in the Academy exhibitions, only cherished the See also:hope of forcing certain reforms on the Academy, and were by no means prepared to lose their chances of See also:admission to its privileges, still less to run any See also:risk in the See also:establishment of a really comprehensive national exhibition of art, decided to organize an exhibition themselves in which artists and craftsmen might show their productions, so that contemporary work in decorative art should be displayed to the public on the same footing, and with the same advantages as had hitherto been monopolized by pictorial art. For many years previously there had been great activity in the study and revival in the practice of many of the neglected decorative handicrafts. See also:Amateur See also:societies and classes were in existence, like the See also:Home Arts and See also:Industries Association, which had established See also:village classes in See also:wood-See also:carving, See also:metal work, See also:spinning and See also:weaving, See also:needlework, pottery and See also:basket-work, and the public See also:interest in handicraft was steadily growing. The See also:machine See also:production of an See also:industrial See also:century had laid its See also:iron hands upon, what had formerly been the exclusive See also:province of the handicraftsman, who only lingered on in a few obscure trades and in forgotten corners of See also:England for the most See also:part. The ideal of See also:mechanical perfection dominated See also:British workmen, and the factory See also:system, first by extreme See also:division of labour, and then by the further specialization of the workman under machine production, See also:left no See also:room for individual See also:artistic feeling among craftsmen trained and working under such conditions.

The demand of the See also:

world-See also:market ruled the See also:character and quality of production, and to the few who would seek some humanity, simplicity of construction or artistic feeling in their domestic decorations and See also:furniture, the only choice was that of the trades-See also:man or salesman, or a plunge into costly and doubtful experiments in See also:original design. From the 'forties onward there had 1 Whose members, comprehending as they do the See also:principal living designers, architects, painters and craftsmen of all kinds, have played no inconsiderable part in the English revival. been much See also:research and study of See also:medieval art in England; there had been many able designers, architects and antiquaries, such as the Pugins and See also:Henry See also:Shaw (1800-1873) and later See also:William See also:Burges (1827-1881), William See also:Butterfield (1814-1900) and G. E. See also:Street and others. The school of pre-Raphaelite painters, by their careful and thorough methods, and their sympathy with medieval design, were among the first to turn See also:attention to beauty of design, See also:colour and significance in the accessories of daily See also:life, and artists like D. G. See also:Rossetti, See also:Ford Madox See also:Brown, and W. See also:Holman See also:Hunt themselves designed and painted furniture. The most successful and most See also:practical effort indeed towards the revival of sounder ideas of construction and workmanship may be said to have arisen out of the work of this group of artists, and may be traced to the workshop of William See also:Morris and his associates in See also:Queen Square, London. William Morris, whose name covers so large a See also:field of artistic as well as See also:literary and social work, came well equipped to his task of raising the arts of design and handicraft, of changing the See also:taste of his countrymen from the corrupt and vulgar ostentation of the Second See also:Empire, and its cheap imitations, which prevailed in the 'fifties and 'sixties, and of winning them back, for a time at least, to the massive simplicity of See also:plain See also:oak furniture, or the delicate beauty of inlays of choice See also:woods, or the See also:charm of painted work, the richness and See also:frank colour of formal floral and heraldic See also:pattern in See also:silk textiles and See also:wall-hangings and carpets, the gaiety and freshness of printed See also:cotton, or the romantic splendour of See also:arras See also:tapestry. Both William Morris and his artistic comrade and life-See also:long friend, See also:Edward Burne-See also:Jones, were no doubt much influenced at the outset by the imaginative insight, the passionate artistic feeling, and the love of medieval See also:romance and colour of See also:Dante See also:Gabriel Rossetti, who remains so remarkable a figure in the great artistic and poetic revival of the latter See also:half of the 19th century.

To William Morris himself, in his artistic career, it was no small See also:

advantage to gain the See also:ear of the English public first by his See also:poetry. His See also:verse-craft helped his handicraft, but both lived See also:side by side. The See also:secret of Morris's great See also:influence in the revival was no doubt to be attributed to his way of personally mastering the working details and handling of each craft he took up in turn, as well as to his See also:power of inspiring his helpers and followers. He was painter, designer, See also:scribe, illuminator, wood-engraver, See also:dyer, See also:weaver and finally printer and papermaker, and having mastered these crafts he could effectively See also:direct and criticize the work of others. His own work and that of Burne-Jones were well known to the public, and in high favour long before the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society was formed, and though largely helped and inspired by the work of these two artists, the aims and See also:objects of the society rather represented those of a younger See also:generation, and were in some measure a fresh development both of the social and the artistic ideas which were represented by See also:Ruskin, Rossetti and Morris, though the society includes men of different See also:schools. Other See also:sources of influence might be named, such as the work of See also:Norman Shaw and See also:Philip See also:Webb in architecture and decoration, of See also:Lewis See also:Day in See also:surface pattern, and William de See also:Morgan in pottery. The demand for the See also:acknowledgment of the See also:personality of each responsible craftsman in a co-operative work was new, and it had direct bearing upon the social and economic conditions of artistic production. The principle, too, of regarding the material, See also:object, method and purpose of a work as essential conditions of its artistic expression, the See also:form and character of which must always be controlled by such conditions, had never before been so emphatically stated, though it practically endorsed the somewhat vague aspirations current for the unity of beauty with utility. Again, a very notable return to extreme simplicity of design in furniture and surface decoration may be remarked; and a certain reserve in the use of colour and See also:ornament, and a love of abstract forms in decoration generally, which are characteristic of later taste. Not less remarkable has been the new development in the design and workmanship of See also:jewelry, See also:gold- and silversmiths' work, and enamels, with which the names of See also:Alexander See also:Fisher, Henry See also:Wilson, See also:Nelson See also:Dawson and C. R. Ashbee are associated.

Among the arts and crafts of design which have blossomed into new life in See also:

recent years—and there is hardly one which has not been touched by the new spiritbook-binding must be named as having attained a fresh and tasteful development through the work of Mr See also:Cobden-See also:Sanderson and his pupils. The art and craft of the See also:needle also must not be forgotten, and its progress is a See also:good criterion of taste in design, choice of colour and treatment. The work of Mrs Morris, of See also:Miss See also:Burden (sometime instructress at the Royal School of Art Needlework, which has carried on its work from 1875), of Miss May Morris, of Miss Una See also:Taylor, of Miss See also:Buckle, of Mrs See also:Walter See also:Crane, of Mrs Newbery, besides many other skilled needlewomen, has been frequently exhibited. Good work is often seen in the national competition See also:works of the students of the English art schools, shown at See also:South See also:Kensington in See also:July. The increase of See also:late years in these exhibitions of designs worked out in the actual material for which they were intended is very remarkable, and is an See also:evidence of the spread of the arts and crafts movement (fostered no doubt by the increase of technical schools, especially of the type of the Central School of Arts and Crafts under the Technical See also:Education See also:Board of the London See also:County See also:Council), of which it may be said that if it has not turned all British craftsmen into artists or all British artists into craftsmen, it had done not a little to expand and socialize the idea of art, and (perhaps it is not too much to say) has made the tasteful English house with its furniture and decorations a See also:model for the civilized world. (W.

End of Article: ARTS AND CRAFTS

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