Brer Rabbit (or Brother Rabbit)
William Morris
1881
- Medium
- Madder vat dyed and block printed cotton
- Dimensions
- 141 × 193 cm (55 1/2 × 76 in.); Repeat: 33.5 × 23 cm (13 1/4 × 9 in.)
- Genre
- printed textile
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
block printing19th centurycotton (textile)natural dyerabbitsprintinganimalsbirdsbritishweaving - printedbotanical/floraldyemadderArts and Crafts Movement20th CenturyTextileBritish Arts and Crafts Movementfoliageprinted textileplain weaving
About
Morris & Co. produced this two-color design using a simple, age-old technique: the white pattern of rabbits and birds nestled among acorns and oak leaves was block printed with a substance that would resist the dye. When the fabric was immersed in a dye bath (seen here in red), the background—all of the unprinted fabric—absorbed the color to reveal the pattern in white. Block printing using either a color or a substance that resists color (or a combination of the two techniques) was the standard method for all of Morris & Co.’s cotton fabrics.
