The Well at the World's End

The Well at the World's End

William Morris

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Determined to reform the artistry of book making, William Morris established Kelmscott Press in 1891. One of its finest productions was this medieval romance written by the founder in the archaic style of Thomas Malory and beautifully illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones. In the full-page illustration, Friends in Need Meet in the Wild Wood, the young knight Ralph meets a maiden disguised in armor. Morris designed the elaborate ornamental border of grapevines, the embellished capital letter, and the typeface. Both imagery and text influenced writers J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Well at the World's EndThe Well at the World's EndThe Well at the World's EndThe Well at the World's EndThe Well at the World's End

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.