Design for 'Peacock' embroidery

This full-size drawing for an embroidered frieze was produced for Morris & Co. by Philip Webb in around 1860. Webb was primarily an architect, notably designing Morris’ Red House, but was also a gifted draughtsman with a particular interest in the natural world. As a young boy, he studied the illustrations of Thomas Bewick, the influence of whom remained evident throughout Webb’s artistic output. William Morris would often ask Webb to draw the animals within his designs for wallpapers, tapestries and textiles, recognising his superior skill. See for example ‘Trellis’, Morris’s first wallpaper design (William Morris Gallery BLA472), and ‘The Forest’, a large tapestry woven at Merton Abbey in 1887, which also incorporates a peacock into its design alongside Morris’s swirling acanthus leaves.

The finished frieze, known as 'Peacock and Vine' (see William Morris Gallery F430), was displayed at an exhibition of work by the Royal School of Needlework in Philadelphia in 1876. In this piece, described as 'equivalent in conception to many of the best masters of medieval arts', the peacock is surrounded by gleaming golden grape vines designed by Morris.