MORRIS AND GREEN SPACES EXHIBITION IN WINCHESTER

Image: Orchard Bed Curtain, May Morris. © Society of Antiquaries of London (Kelmscott Manor)/V&A

Beauty of the Earth: The Art of May, Jane & William Morris is a new show at The Arc, Winchester, demonstrating how William’s love of gardens and green spaces was shared by his wife Jane and daughter May. It brings into focus the art and writings made by the women and men who gathered at the Morris homes, where gardens were transformed into creative and pleasurable spaces. Honeysuckle, strawberries, apples, willow boughs and roses are recurring themes in their designs. Riverbanks and tangled woodlands were also woven into William Morris’s landscapes of the imagination.  

From embroidery to wallpaper, decorated books to oil paintings, the exhibition gathers works from the earliest days of Jane and William’s marriage, loaned from institutions including Kelmscott Manor/Society of Antiquaries, the William Morris Society, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. It will also feature works by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones and John Ruskin, as well as designs by May Morris which are on public display for the first time.

The exhibition is from 15 November 2025 until 4 February 2026. For more information visit the website.