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Introduction

Historic Wallpapers, 1750-1949

January 17 - April 6, 2003

In the 18th century, European and American interiors were transformed by the rise of a new kind of wall treatment. Wallpaper – mass-produced, affordable, and highly practical – reached a broader audience than fine prints and paintings. This wide distribution prompted wallpaper artists to heed the contemporary interests of the expanding consumer class. As a result, wallpaper often recorded social changes as they were expressed in the shifting relationship between high art and popular culture throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.

This exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the Department of Decorative Arts at The RISD Museum and participants in a graduate seminar directed by Professor Catherine Wilkinson Zerner, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, Brown University. The seminar is part of a RISD Museum program supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the exhibition is supported in part by the Felicia Fund and the Sachem Foundation.

Selected Objects

Attributed to Tomita

Wallpaper panel, mid 1800s

Attributed to Jean Baptiste Pillement

Wallpaper Panel, ca. 1780

Attributed to Tomita

Wallpaper panel, mid 1800s

Chinese Qing, China

Court Scene, ca. 1770

Alexander Calder, designer

Splotchy, 1949
No Image Available

Eugène Ehrmann, designer

El Dorado, ca. 1848

Xavier Mader, designer

Trophy with Bust of Homer, 1814

Xavier Mader, designer

Judgement of Paris, 1814

Attributed to Père Boulard

Blue and White Domino with Floral Sprays, ca. 1750

Attributed to Père Boulard

Blue and White Domino with Floral Sprays, ca. 1750

Xavier Mader, designer

Trophy with Bust of a Woman, 1814
No Image Available

Dagobert Peche, designer

Spitze (Lace), 1920

Probably Joseph Dufour, manufacturer

Base and capital, ca. 1810-1820

Huard & Chasset

Jardins de Palais Royal, ca. 1805-10

Probably Joseph Dufour, manufacturer

Base and capital, ca. 1810-1820
No Image Available

Eugène Ehrmann, designer

El Dorado, 1890-1900

Etienne de Lavallée

Wallpaper panel, ca. 1790
No Image Available

British American Possibly

Wallpaper fragment, ca. 1880
No Image Available

British

Wallpaper fragment, 1882

British

Wallpaper Fragment, 1882

More objects +

Exhibition Checklist

Historic Wallpapers, 1750-1949

January 17 - April 6, 2003
View Checklist PDF

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