DOI Heft:
American section
DOI Artikel:Coburn, Frederick W.: Individual treatment of the picture frame
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28250#0393
Design in Picture Frames
oured lineage, has gradu-
ally gone to seed. That
pictures should have been
set off for several genera-
tions of civilised history
with overwrought and un-
meaning specimens of
woodwork and plaster-
work without serious pro-
test from professional art-
ists—-men, that is, whose
business it theoretically is
to be concerned with con-
siderations of the beautiful
—is evidence of the low
standards of taste that
have prevailed amongst us
during the latter half of
the nineteenth century and
up to to-day. Recall the
average exhibitions of the
last ten years and think, if
you happened to notice it
at all, of the examples you adaptation prom Venetian frame by h. d. murphy
saw there of tawdry, in-
appropriate framing.
Yet, in the early days of the easel, picture frames thought lavished upon them by individual crafts-
were very beautiful as a result of the care and men. Their true decorative function was then
well understood; they medi-
ated effectively between the
picture and its surround-
ings. The various architec-
tural forms that are found
on so many modern frames,
and that are so meaning-
less now, were once accom-
modated precisely to the
style of the particular com-
partments in which the
pictures were to be hung.
They had, in other words,
decorative justification.
All that has been lost. In
place of the workmanship
of conscientious artists, we
have the ordinary frames
of commerce. In these days
you go to a shop to order
something that is sawed off
from an ornamented stick
of moulding, which may or
may not be suitable in de-
sign and proportions to the
by h. d. murphy composition of your pic-
PORTRAIT FRAME DESIGNED FOR SUMMER RESIDENCE
oured lineage, has gradu-
ally gone to seed. That
pictures should have been
set off for several genera-
tions of civilised history
with overwrought and un-
meaning specimens of
woodwork and plaster-
work without serious pro-
test from professional art-
ists—-men, that is, whose
business it theoretically is
to be concerned with con-
siderations of the beautiful
—is evidence of the low
standards of taste that
have prevailed amongst us
during the latter half of
the nineteenth century and
up to to-day. Recall the
average exhibitions of the
last ten years and think, if
you happened to notice it
at all, of the examples you adaptation prom Venetian frame by h. d. murphy
saw there of tawdry, in-
appropriate framing.
Yet, in the early days of the easel, picture frames thought lavished upon them by individual crafts-
were very beautiful as a result of the care and men. Their true decorative function was then
well understood; they medi-
ated effectively between the
picture and its surround-
ings. The various architec-
tural forms that are found
on so many modern frames,
and that are so meaning-
less now, were once accom-
modated precisely to the
style of the particular com-
partments in which the
pictures were to be hung.
They had, in other words,
decorative justification.
All that has been lost. In
place of the workmanship
of conscientious artists, we
have the ordinary frames
of commerce. In these days
you go to a shop to order
something that is sawed off
from an ornamented stick
of moulding, which may or
may not be suitable in de-
sign and proportions to the
by h. d. murphy composition of your pic-
PORTRAIT FRAME DESIGNED FOR SUMMER RESIDENCE