Arts and Crafts movement

William Morris's design for Trellis wallpaper, 1862 The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and North America. Broadly, the beginning of the movement can be dated to the 1880s, with the term itself first used in 1887, and by about 1920 it can be considered as over in the UK, although the term continued in spurious use for various popular elements in design.

Initiated in reaction against the perceived impoverishment of the decorative arts and the conditions in which they were produced, the movement flourished in Europe and North America between about 1880 and 1920. Some consider that it is the root of the Modern Style, a British expression of what later came to be called the Art Nouveau movement. Others consider that it is the incarnation of Art Nouveau in England. Others consider Art and Crafts to be in opposition to Art Nouveau. Arts and Crafts indeed criticised Art Nouveau for its use of industrial materials such as iron.