page_title: Harry Morley
section_title: Marriage and family
hierarchical_section_title: Harry Morley / Marriage and family
caption_attribution_description: English: Harry Morley's watercolour St Marks from the Piazza for E V Lucas's A Wanderer in Venice
context_page_description: Harry Morley ARA was a British painter, etcher and engraver known for his classical and mythological compositions.
context_section_description: In London 1911, Harry Morley married Lilias Helen Swain ARCA (1880-1973). A skilful calligrapher and embroiderer, Swain had studied design at the Royal College of Art under William Lethaby. She was trained in lettering and illumination by Professor Edward Johnston and went on to become his first assistant. She studied embroidery under Grace Christie (1872-1953) whom she assisted after her graduation. Swain was teaching calligraphy and embroidery at the Royal College when she became engaged to Morley.
  With fees from a commission to illustrate A Wanderer in Florence by E. V. Lucas (1912), Harry and Lilias Morley honeymooned in Florence. The couple travelled on to Venice and Paris, studied paintings in the galleries and sketched. Watercolours made by Morley in Venice were used two years later to illustrate Lucas's A Wanderer in Venice (1914). His watercolours of Paris were published in The Charm of Paris by Alfred H. Hyatt in 1913. In 1926, he was commissioned to illustrate a third book by Lucas, A Wanderer in Rome. The bird's-eye maps of Italian cities that appear on the end papers of all three books for Lucas were drawn by Morley and feature his wife's calligraphy.
  The couple lived in London where they had two daughters, Elinor Beryl (7 September 1912 - 26 September 1998) and Julia Morley (2 September 1917 - 16 May 2008). During August each year, Morley and his family took regular sketching holidays to countryside or coastal areas of England and Wales. His watercolours, which looked back to the English landscape tradition with a 'strong sense of place, technical assurance and characteristic integrity' were noted for their 'freedom and spontaneity'. In contrast, his oil and tempera paintings were 'painstakingly constructed', reflecting Morley's admiration for the early Italian painting tradition.
  Lilias all but gave up her artistic career to support Morley in his work. Whenever the opportunity arose, she undertook private commissions in calligraphy and embroidery design. She continued to draw and paint under the name Lester Romley. A quiet feminist from an early age, Lilias shared digs in Chelsea with fellow Royal College of Art student Sylvia Pankhurst, who like Lilias was from Manchester. Lilias designed and embroidered for the Pankhursts a demonstration banner (now lost).
caption: Morley's watercolour St Marks from the Piazza for E. V. Lucas's A Wanderer in Venice (1914)
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