In the Attics
Not on view
Kelmscott Manor was the country home of William Morris (1834-1896), poet, craftsman, designer, socialist reformer, and founder of the English Arts and Crafts movement. He and his wife Jane shared the house with the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti from 1871 to 1874, and it remained a country retreat for Morris and the artists and intellectuals in his circle until his death. At Morris' request, the bookseller and photographer Evans visited the old gray manor on the banks of the Thames in order to photograph it. This rare album, one of only two known to exist, was assembled by the photographer and contains thirty-one platinum prints, each carefully mounted on colored papers. In this photograph, Evans infused the bare and rambling space of the attic with a sense of harmony and spirituality that would later characterize his photographs of England's great cathedrals.