William Morris in the Faroes

William Morris in the Faroe Islands in 1871: 'The Pure Torshavn Weave Fabric'

William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an artist, designer, craftsman, writer and socialist, who dramatically changed the fashions and the ideologies of the era. Educated in Theology at Oxford, soon he also trained as an architect inspired by his friends, the Pre-Raphaelite artists, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones. Later Morris became the leading figure in the Arts and Crafts movement.

William Morris - The maker of beautiful things

Morris gained a focus in designing tapestries, wallpaper, fabrics, but also furniture, and stained glass windows.

In 1871 and in 1873 he travelled to Iceland and the Faroe Islands, twice he landed in the Faroes in 1871. Morris reacted against the rapid industrialisation and pollution, cities with cramped living conditions. His hometown of Walthamstow, once a quiet village in the Essex countryside, had become a part of London’s urban sprawl.

The trip to the Faroe Islands in 1871

When arriving in Faroe Islands in 1871 he was taken by his first sight of a Nordic country. His trip to Iceland and the Faroe Islands was a prolonged version of his search to find a world not destroyed by industrialism, colonialism and greed; he wanted to find communality and kindness.

As a designer, Morris was fascinated with the design of the boats, houses, clothes of men and women in the Faroe Islands. In Kirkjubøur village he found a great number of carved church art and bench ends.

His view of the people was positive and the ‘socioscape’ of Tórshavn were different to those of most travel writers before him. He was also affected by seeing well-known flowers in such a strange place:“… a most beautiful and poetical place it looked to me, but more remote and melancholy than I can say, in spite of the flowers and grass and bright sun … (Ibid. p. 15).”

Morris had an excellent understanding of architecture. His view of the people was positive and the ‘socioscape’ of Tórshavn were different to those of most travel writers before him:

“…the houses were all of wood, high-roofed, with little white casements, the rest of the walls being mostly done over with Stockholm tar: every roof was of turf, and fine crops of flowery grass grew on some of them… the people we met were very polite, good-tempered and contented looking: the women not pretty but not horrible either, and the men often quite handsome, and always carrying themselves well in their neat dresses … (Ibid. p. 13).“

When his ship, the Diana came around the base of the island of Streymoy into the narrow channel of Vestmannasund, the passengers saw people come running out to look at them, and always there’s the abrupt cliffs and high peaks as backdrops. A few days later, in a letter Morris spoke of their last few hours in the Faroes: “I have seen nothing out of a dream so strange as our coming out of the last narrow sound into the Atlantic and having the huge wall of rocks astern in the shadow less midnight twilight; nothing I have ever seen has impressed me so much (Morris, in Aho).“

The tapestry – ‘Pure Tórshavn Weave Fabric’

Morris left a tapestry designed on his travels in Tórshavn. He made many observations, the colour scheme he returns in the Faroe Islands are grey; the grass is grey – so no wonder the designed weaved tapestry by Morris turned out true to these observations and the fabrics are only found in two scales of grey as opposed to the myriad of flowers and colours of the Arts and Craft movement.

Kim Simonsen
Ph.D. MA.