Etienne de Lavallée

This paper may be one of the Lavallée-Poussin panels sold by the famed manufacturer Réveillon in 1788. Such designs were immensely popular in France in the late 18th century, where the infant wallpaper industry was contemporaneous with the neoclassical revival. Early mass-produced wallpapers often contain abundant references to Greek and Roman subjects. This vogue for classical decorative schemes was due to a renewal of interest in the ancient past that accompanied the accidental rediscovery of the Roman cities of Herculaneum (1713) and Pompeii (1748). The beautifully preserved wall paintings found in homes at these sites inspired many formal characteristics of the Museum’s papers. Original examples of the types of ancient Roman wall painting that inspired this wallpaper may be found upstairs in the Museum’s Greek and Roman galleries.