Sunflowers, ‘Souls’ and Stitches: Early designs from the RSN

This is a recording of a live online event held on Wednesday 13 November 2024.

Meet RSN Archivist, Vicky Bevan, to discover more about some of the late Victorian designs within the Royal School of Needlework’s Collection. In this talk she discusses the impact of concepts of ‘good design’, Aestheticism, and the Arts and Crafts movement on the early development of the Royal School of Art Needlework.

External designers like Walter Crane, William Morris, George Aitchison, Edward Burne-Jones and Gurtrude Jekyll all contributed to the early development of needlework design at the RSN. The social, political and collecting culture that surrounded the school and founders Lady Marian Alford, Lady Welby Gregory and the influential Mrs Madeline Wyndham (part of the ‘Souls’ social group and designer and artist herself) formed a design philosophy that was at the forefront of the decorative arts movements of the time.

The RSN’s internal designers and the function of the School’s in-house ‘paint-room’ will also be introduced, giving an insight into some of the more anonymous designers who worked there and the processes of designing for needlework.

Vicky is a former Curator for the National Trust where she looked after properties and collections including Polesden Lacey, Sissinghurst and Ightham Mote. She has a background in design history having studied her Masters in The History of Design at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Royal College of Art.