NEW HAVEN, CT.- This fall, the Yale Center for British Art will be the only east coast venue for the exhibition “The Beauty of Life”: William Morris and the Art of Design, on view through January 2, 2005. Organized by the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, “The Beauty of Life” presents nearly 250 items from the Huntington’s collection of William Morris materials, the largest of its kind outside of the United Kingdom. Included are original designs for stained glass, wallpaper, textiles, embroidery, tapestry, and books, as well as correspondence, a selection of rare editions published by the Kelmscott Press, and the manuscript for Morris’s major poetic work, The Earthly Paradise. In addition, some three dozen drawings, rare books, and manuscripts, selected from the Yale Center for British Art collections and from other libraries at Yale, will be on view.

Of special note is a spectacular 22-foot-tall stained glass window, designed by Morris’s partner and life long friend Edward Burne-Jones, which will fill the Center’s entrance court during the run of the exhibition. This large Morris & Company window, taken from the now demolished Unitarian Chapel in Heywood, Lancashire, offers a rare opportunity to examine the firm’s glass up close. Morris singled out the qualities that he felt distinguished good stained glass: “beauty and character of outline; exquisite, clear, precise drawing of incident, such especially as the folds of drapery. . . . Whatever key of colour may be chosen, the colour should always be clear, bright, and emphatic.”

Morris founded Morris & Company in 1861 with Edward Burne-Jones, the artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown, and the architect Philip Webb. Morris took an active role in the firm's creative enterprises, mastering all aspects of the production and design of stained glass, wallpaper, printed and woven textiles, and tapestry. The exhibition demonstrates the design and production processes of the firm, from pencil and watercolor sketches to the company’s original Minute Book. In addition to showcasing Morris and his partners’ genius for design, “The Beauty of Life” explores Morris’s fashioning of new forms and styles based upon his passion for the art and culture of the past, building a modern art upon medieval foundations. Morris’s idealization of a medieval model of life that integrated creativity and labor led him to become a committed socialist, and a selection of material related to Morris’s political activities will be on view. A final section of the exhibition is devoted to the lesser-known activities of the firm after Morris’s death until its dissolution in 1940, represented in the work of John Henry Dearle, Morris’s chosen successor as primary designer. Morris’s lifework inspired the Arts and Crafts movement on both sides of the Atlantic and has proven lasting in its visionary transformation of interior design into art.