Cleveland Museum of Art

Strawberry Thief

William Morris

Date

c 1936

Medium

plain weave cotton, discharge printed

Culture

England, Merton Abbey, 20th century

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

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.

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