At Standen, the familiar Morris patterns transition from flat designs into three-dimensional space. Entering the light-filled Morning Room, one is struck not by historical distance, but by a quiet sense of immediacy—as though the room’s inhabitants have merely stepped into the garden for a moment.

It is a distinctly personal, domestic space. Standing there, one begins to appreciate how Philip Webb’s architecture, Morris’s textiles, and the daily lives of the Beale family women shaped a uniquely modern vision of the English home.

I decided to create a light assemblage capturing a collective portrait of women through the mediums of light and sartorial silhouette. Inspired by the palpable sense of presence in the Morning Room at Standen, this piece will capture a collective portrait of Margaret Beale and her daughters during the early 1890s—a moment defined by two converging turning points: a shift in sartorial silhouette and the quiet revolution of domestic electricity.

The early 1890s marked the decline of the Victorian bustle—a rigid structure that had long constrained the female figure—in favour of a freer, more fluid silhouette. At Standen, this movement towards physical freedom coincided with W.A.S. Benson’s pioneering electrical design. The arrival of electricity transformed the atmosphere of the home, replacing the heavy gloom and soot of gaslight with a clear, soft radiance.

As the restrictive layers of the past faded, the Beale women stepped into a brightened environment, taking an active role in shaping their surroundings—from directing complex interior schemes to cultivating the surrounding gardens. The work captures that transitional moment: the soft rustle of departing 19th-century skirts under the glow of a new era.