Fitzwilliam show revisits William Morris through archives and makers

At the centre of the exhibition is the collection assembled by Sydney Cockerell, Morris’s friend and private secretary, later director of the Fitzwilliam from 1908 to 1937. Drawings, paintings, designs, letters, books and other objects held in Cambridge are being shown together for the first time, alongside loans from public and private collections across the UK.

For artists and drawing enthusiasts, the appeal lies in the material itself: much of it is on paper and is rarely shown, offering a close look at how Morris and his circle developed images and patterns. The exhibition frames this as a collective practice, where collaboration and design are inseparable from the way the work is seen and used.

Curators Jan Marsh and Karen Livingstone also use the show to recover women who worked in Morris’s workshops and studios on embroidery, textiles, furniture and wallpaper. Jane Morris, May Morris and Kate Faulkner are among those highlighted, with Faulkner represented by a large altarpiece on loan from the chapel at the University of Roehampton.

The exhibition also looks beyond the workshop. A lock of Elizabeth Siddal’s hair is on display for the first time, alongside several of her works, including a 1857 watercolour illustrating Clerk Saunders. Together, these objects show how an image can preserve labour, authorship and a history of attribution that has often been incomplete.