Art and Forbidden Fruit (Hidden Passion in the Life of William Morris)

A provocative study of the 19th-century artist and designer William Morris, revealing new insights into how his family relationships affected his work.

William Morris is one of the most admired figures of the Victorian era. Studies of his Art and his life fill the shelves of libraries. Yet for all this accessibility, an air of uncertainty has always clouded his image. Since Morris's death, biographers and scholars have portrayed the artist as a victim, bound to an adulterous wife. In Art and Forbidden Fruit, John Le Bourgeois lifts this veil of appearances, and shows the truth about Morris's life. In a close analysis of Morrisís poetry and biography, the author asserts the early existence of an emotional attachment between William Morris and his sister Emma, and how she became the principal source of his inspiration. Le Bourgeois follows the paths of Morris the artist and Morris the man, and points out the links between the poetís love for his sister and his evolution as an artist. Art and Forbidden Fruit provides a highly original biography of William Morris that offers a new perspective on his life and a fresh interpretation of his art by a specialist.