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About William De Morgan

Portrait of William De Morgan by Evelyn. Located at the National Portrait Gallery

William De Morgan was the most important ceramic artist of the Arts and Crafts Movement. He was born on 16 November 1839 into an intellectual family. William's father, Augustus De Morgan was the first professor of Mathematics at the newly founded University College London. His wife, Sofia Elizabeth Frend, campaigned alongside Elizabeth Fry in the early 19th century to promote prison reform and held strong views on religious liberty and women's suffrage. They were both involved in the founding of the higher education institution, Bedford College for Women, in London.

In 1859 De Morgan was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools and studied alongside Frederick Walker and Simeon Solomon, who remarked on this "entirely uncommonplace young man; tall, thin, high forehead, aquiline nose and high squeaky voice" - which earned him the nickname "Mouse". Henry Holiday was also in his circle and introduced De Morgan to William Morris. Two years later De Morgan turned his attention to the decorative arts and began his experimentations with stained glass.

Collaboration with William Morris

In 1863 De Morgan had his first real career break when he met William Morris and the painter Edward Burne Jones. As Morris had not been very successful with ceramics, De Morgan took over the tile production side of the business and soon began designing his own tiles. He collaborated with William Morris for many years.

De Morgan as Successful Novelist

By 1900 his designs were two generations old and considered a little old fashioned. De Morgan, alongside his partner, the architect Halsey Ricardo, continued work until 1907 but with dwindling success and ill health, he spent much of the year in Florence, Italy with his wife. His work, although highly prized by the avant garde of the day, had never provided a large income for De Morgan. His greatest success was as a novelist. He only began writing when he was 65 but his five bestsellers ensured a financially secure old age for him and his wife.

There were many other sides to De Morgan's talents; he designed and made pottery kilns and equipment; sketched ideas for grinding mills and sieves to be used in his workshops; was a knowledgeable chemist; worked on a new gearing system for bicycles; developed telegraph codes and evolved his own system of accounts. He even wrote to the Admiralty during the First World War with his suggestions of how they might destroy U-boats.

However, his lasting legacy is his ceramics and the De Morgan Centre is fortunate in owning a large collection of the finest examples of his work.