This embroidered panel was designed by Philip Webb and William Morris and produced by Morris & Co.’s embroidery department. The panel is cut from a larger embroidery and depicts a peacock (designed by Webb) surrounded by a repeating pattern of grapes and vines (designed by Morris). Webb’s full-size drawing for the central peacock is also in the Gallery’s collection (see A209). Webb was primarily an architect, notably designing Morris’s Red House, but was also a gifted draughtsman with a particular interest in the natural world. As a young boy, he studied the illustrations of Thomas Bewick, the influence of whom remained evident throughout Webb’s artistic output. William Morris would often ask Webb to draw the animals within his designs for wallpapers, tapestries and textiles, recognising his superior skill. See for example ‘Trellis’, Morris’s first wallpaper design (William Morris Gallery BLA472), and ‘The Forest’, a large tapestry woven at Merton Abbey in 1887, which also incorporates a peacock into its design alongside Morris’s swirling acanthus leaves.
