Critical assessment

Henry Dearle's contributions to textile design were long overshadowed by the towering figure of William Morris. However, Dearle originally exhibited his designs under the Morris name rather than his own, especially in the Arts and Crafts Exhibitions and the major Morris retrospective of 1899, and even today many Dearle designs are popularly offered as "William Morris" patterns.

As late as 1981, the catalog of an exhibit of Morris & Co. textiles dismissed Dearle's style as "rarely more than a pastiche of his master's", citing as a source Lewis F. Day's assessment of 1905. But by 1989, textile historians had begun recognizing Dearle's talents as a designer. Linda Parry, a curator of textiles at the Victoria and Albert Museum, has suggested that the incorporation of Near and Middle Eastern designs in Morris & Co. textiles from the late 1880s may show the influence of Dearle's taste. Parry identifies Dearle's mature artistic voice from the 1890s in designs such as Seaweed wallpaper, Tulip woven fabric and Eden printed cotton, the latter reflecting Dearle's interest in Turkish and Persian textiles in the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert).