Kelmscott Manor relationship with its setting, especially its garden. The Manor is featured in Morris' work "News from Nowhere". It also appears in the background of "Water Willow", a portrait of his wife, Jane Morris, painted by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1871. After William Morris's death in 1896, the Manor continued to be occupied by his widow, Jane Morris (who purchased it in 1913) and later, his daughters. May Morris died in 1938 and bequeathed the house to Oxford University, on the basis the contents were preserved and the public were granted access. The University were unwilling to preserve the house as
Water Willow (Rossetti) it being a great favourite of hers." The original was bequeathed to the Delaware Art Museum by Bancroft's descendants in 1935. The painting was exhibited in Manchester in 1882 and again in 1887, London in 1883, and Philadelphia in 1892. It was also exhibited in Wilmington, Delaware in 1917 and 1934, New Haven, Connecticut in 1976, and Liverpool and Amsterdam in 2003. Water Willow (Rossetti) Water Willow is an 1871 oil painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. It depicts Jane Morris in the river landscape near Kelmscott Manor, with the manor in the left background and Kelmscott Church below the hill