id: 117129 accession number: 1937.696 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1937.696 updated: 2023-03-20 14:14:04.046000 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: 1961-04-07T05:00:00 Design in Printed Textiles. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 7-September 3, 1961). title: Transitions: 19th and Early 20th Century French and English Textiles opening date: 1986-06-03T04:00:00 Transitions: 19th and Early 20th Century French and English Textiles. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 3-November 16, 1986). title: Imagining the Garden opening date: 2015-10-24T00:00:00 Imagining the Garden. 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 William Morris: Designing an Earthly Paradise. 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, Strawberry Thief 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 Strawberry Thief, 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 William Morris: Designing an Earthly Paradise. 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