id:			117129
accession number:	1937.696
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/1937.696
updated:		2022-10-28 21:31:06.728000

Strawberry Thief, c 1936. Designed by William Morris (British, 1834–1896). Plain weave cotton, discharge printed; overall: 88.3 x 99.1 cm (34 3/4 x 39 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Henry Chisholm 1937.696

title:				Strawberry Thief
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			c 1936
creation date earliest:		1936
creation date latest:		1936
current location:		
creditline:			Gift of Mrs. Henry Chisholm
copyright:			

---

culture:	England, Merton Abbey, 20th century
technique:	plain weave cotton, discharge printed
department:	Textiles
collection:	Textiles
type:		Textile
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

---

CREATORS

* William Morris (British, 1834–1896)  - designer

---

measurements: Overall: 88.3 x 99.1 cm (34 3/4 x 39 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

---

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		Design in Printed Textiles
	opening date:   1961-04-04T04:00:00
	<i>Design in Printed Textiles</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 4-September 3, 1961).

	title:		Transitions: 19th and Early 20th Century French and English Textiles
	opening date:   1986-06-03T04:00:00
	<i>Transitions: 19th and Early 20th Century French and English Textiles</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 3-November 16, 1986).

	title:		Imagining the Garden
	opening date:   2015-10-24T00:00:00
	<i>Imagining the Garden</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 24, 2015-March 6, 2016).

	title:		William Morris: Designing an Earthly Paradise
	opening date:   2017-10-24T04:00:00
	<i>William Morris: Designing an Earthly Paradise</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 24, 2017-January 14, 2019).

---

LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

---

PROVENANCE

---

fun fact: 


digital description: 


wall description: 
Perhaps the most recognizable of Morris’s textiles, <em>Strawberry Thief</em> 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 <em>Strawberry Thief, </em>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.
---

RELATED WORKS

---

CITATIONS

	Parry, Linda. William Morris Textiles. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1983.
	page number: 	p. 155, no 46
	url:		

	Korkow, Cory. "Textiles." IN <em>William Morris: Designing an Earthly Paradise.</em> Cory Korkow and Victoria Hepburn, 8-23. Cleveland, Ohio : Cleveland Museum of Art, 2017.
	page number: 	Mentioned: pp. 18-19; reproduced: p. 19, fig, 13.
	url:		

---

IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1937.696/1937.696_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1937.696/1937.696_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1937.696/1937.696_full.tif