DOI issue:
No. 36 (March, 1896)
DOI article:The revival of english domestic architecture, [2], The work of Mr. Norman Shaw
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17296#0113
The Revival of English Domestic Architecture
less opportunity for the growth of the new school
of design. For some time past it has been the
fashion to sneer at the aesthetic revival, to confuse
its follies with its undoubted merits. Yet if you
take away the sunflower and the Japanese fan, the
blue china hung upon walls, and the rest of its less
defensible and ephemeral fashions, in simple jus-
tice you should compare what is left with the
terrible average of early Victorian decoration. For
the Gothic movement had scarcely touched the
upper and middle class house. It is with the
reign of Mr. Norman Shaw and his able contem-
poraries that we find a distinct change for the
better, reflected from the architecture to the de-
coration, thence to the furnishing, and even to
some extent to the bric-a-brac of the new houses
and to the costume of their inmates. These
IOO
secondary influences are perhaps more easily re-
cognised by the average person of taste who is not
peculiarly interested in architecture. Yet, to re-
peat once more what a certain school of artistic
prophets have preached for years, there can be
little doubt that nearly all the applied arts owe far
more to architecture than is apparent at fir
sight. Indeed, in tracing the source of the
new movement in design, it is surprising to find
how many of its leaders have begun as students in
architecture, and turned afterwards to illustration,
designing, and other branches of art, bringing into
the realm of fancy certain solid principles of pro-
portion, construction, and style, which give tenfold
value to their work.
It would be foolish, however, to give Mr. Norman
Shaw credit without adducing examples that bear
less opportunity for the growth of the new school
of design. For some time past it has been the
fashion to sneer at the aesthetic revival, to confuse
its follies with its undoubted merits. Yet if you
take away the sunflower and the Japanese fan, the
blue china hung upon walls, and the rest of its less
defensible and ephemeral fashions, in simple jus-
tice you should compare what is left with the
terrible average of early Victorian decoration. For
the Gothic movement had scarcely touched the
upper and middle class house. It is with the
reign of Mr. Norman Shaw and his able contem-
poraries that we find a distinct change for the
better, reflected from the architecture to the de-
coration, thence to the furnishing, and even to
some extent to the bric-a-brac of the new houses
and to the costume of their inmates. These
IOO
secondary influences are perhaps more easily re-
cognised by the average person of taste who is not
peculiarly interested in architecture. Yet, to re-
peat once more what a certain school of artistic
prophets have preached for years, there can be
little doubt that nearly all the applied arts owe far
more to architecture than is apparent at fir
sight. Indeed, in tracing the source of the
new movement in design, it is surprising to find
how many of its leaders have begun as students in
architecture, and turned afterwards to illustration,
designing, and other branches of art, bringing into
the realm of fancy certain solid principles of pro-
portion, construction, and style, which give tenfold
value to their work.
It would be foolish, however, to give Mr. Norman
Shaw credit without adducing examples that bear