Design for the wall-decoration and cornice in the Green Dining Room, Victoria and Albert Museum thumbnail 1
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Design for the wall-decoration and cornice in the Green Dining Room, Victoria and Albert Museum

Design
ca. 1866 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co took part in the 1862 Exhibition in London. In 1865 this relatively unknown firm was given the prestigious commission of designing the Green Dining Room, one of three new on-site refreshment rooms at the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum). Philip Webb designed the ceiling and much of the wall decoration, with its splendid moulded frieze of hare and hounds. Webb said he was inspired by the same decoration carved on the font in Newcastle Cathedral. He was famous for his drawings of animals, and the hare reappears in his tapestry designs. This beautifully-coloured drawing shows the treatment of the upper part of one wall. The design was largely carried out, although there would be some minor changes to the colour scheme. As executed, the eggs of the egg-and-dart cornice, for instance, were gilded, and placed against a red ground; the design shows these colours used in reverse.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleDesign for the wall-decoration and cornice in the Green Dining Room, Victoria and Albert Museum (popular title)
Materials and techniques
Pencil, watercolour and gold metallic pigment
Brief description
Design for Victoria and Albert Museum by Philip Webb, Green Dining Room, ca. 1866
Physical description
Pencil and watercolour drawing on paper. Highly finished, this design for decorating the upper parts of the walls in the Green Dining Room shows a repeated pattern of willow branches with fruit and orange and gold flowers; the willow leaves are pale green, against a darker green ground. Above, the portion of the frieze seen in this drawing contains a rectangular panel with a running dog, above and below which are indented panels decorated with plants and sun motifs. Crowning the design is an egg-and-dart cornice. Inscribed at foot: 'the blue panelling comes up to this line'.
Dimensions
  • Object height: 495mm
  • Object width: 317mm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
The blue panelling comes up to this line (Inscribed in ink)
Credit line
Given by Mr H. B. Johnson
Object history
In late 1865 the Department of Science and Art commissioned the recently established firm of Morris & Co. to prepare designs for the Green Dining Room. Philip Webb was responsible for many details of the decoration under the direction of William Morris. The rectangular panels in the cornice alternately represent a running hare and a pursuing dog, an idea adopted from the font in Newcastle Cathedral according to Webb's own statement to Lethaby (see p.56, Vol.I of William Morris by May Morris, Oxford, 1936).
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Summary
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co took part in the 1862 Exhibition in London. In 1865 this relatively unknown firm was given the prestigious commission of designing the Green Dining Room, one of three new on-site refreshment rooms at the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum). Philip Webb designed the ceiling and much of the wall decoration, with its splendid moulded frieze of hare and hounds. Webb said he was inspired by the same decoration carved on the font in Newcastle Cathedral. He was famous for his drawings of animals, and the hare reappears in his tapestry designs. This beautifully-coloured drawing shows the treatment of the upper part of one wall. The design was largely carried out, although there would be some minor changes to the colour scheme. As executed, the eggs of the egg-and-dart cornice, for instance, were gilded, and placed against a red ground; the design shows these colours used in reverse.
Bibliographic reference
Physick, John. The Victoria and Albert Museum: The History of Its Building. London: The Victoria & Albert Museum, 1982.
Collection
Accession number
E.5096-1960

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Record createdFebruary 19, 2003
Record URL
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