DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1398#0134
PLATE 143.
WALL-DEOOBATION,
BY ME. OWEN AND MESSES. GEEEN & KING, LONDON.
A MONG the exhibitors in Class 30—Furniture and Decoration—were to be seen several very
-/-~-*- good examples of the state of internal decoration in this country, from which we have
selected, in the present case, a portion of a panel exhibited by Mr. A. Owen, and a similar subject
contributed by Messrs. Green & King.
Mr. Owen, who received Honourable mention from the International Jury of his class for his
"interior decorations and furniture, &c, for good design and workmanship," exhibited four pieces
of a highly decorative nature, two of which were furnished with panels, excellently painted with
coloured Raffaellesqiie ornament on a gold ground: a portion of one of these we have selected
for illustration. Messrs. Green & King forwarded two pieces of wall-decoration in the Renaissance
style, both very good, and one of the same description as that of Mr. Owen, which we have
given in the accompanying plate.
The decorator's art has made very rapid strides within the last quarter of a century, and most
satisfactory results have arisen from the numerous works which have been published on the
subject, from the institution of International Exhibitions, and from the impulse given to internal
decoration through the revival of a style of architecture in which coloured ornamentation, founded
on excellent principles, forms a prominent feature. We are happy to record the names of some
of the principal promoters of this branch of art; such as Mr. Owen Jones, to whose refined taste,
untiring industry, and sound theories on decoration, this country certainly is deeply indebted for
the advance it has made in decorative art; the late A. "Welby Pugin, to whom, in one particular
style of art, the same remarks apply; Mr. Digby Wyatt, who by precept and practice has aided
greatly the success of the movement; Mr. J. Gregory Crace, who by his executed works has
always evinced a highly-refined taste, and a judicious sense of the use of ornament; the late
John Thomas, who brought to bear on this subject natural genius of a very unusual order, and
showed an amount of knowledge of the subject which could have hardly been expected from one
so much engaged on sculpture. Nor have our principal architects in their great works been
behindhand in the application and advancement of internal decoration to the buildings erected
by them; and the names of Sir C. Barry, Mr. Sidney Smirke, R.A., Mr. Tite, M.P., and a worthy
phalanx of their fellow-professionals, will always be remembered as among the earliest promoters
of that system of internal polychromatic decoration which has now become a characteristic of our
great public buildings.
In the present Exhibition, besides those gentlemen whose works we have illustrated, should
be mentioned with commendation Mr. Coulton's allegorical arabesque decoration in the style of
Louis Seize; Mr. Earle's drawing-room decorations; Mr. Kershaw's wall-decoration, of which
we have been only able to give one design as a background to Plate 56. The imitation silk panel
for a drawing-room by this exhibitor was especially deserving of notice. Mr. Kershaw's cleverness
iu his imitation woods and marbling was so well established at the Great Exhibition of 1851, and
again at Paris in 1855, that it requires no further comment from us. Mr. Arthur's ornamental
panel and pilaster was a work of very unusual merit; and Mr. Lainson's pilasters, enriched with
paintings on satin, were characterized by good design and clever execution. The church and
domestic decorations in the Mediaeval style by the Messrs. Hayward consisted of a groat variety
of designs, all good in principle and colour; the productions of Messrs. Harland & Fisher, designed
also in the Medieval style, were of a very high order of merit. Space prevents our noticing the
works of other exhibitors, which, if not actually illustrative of wall-decoration, were capable of
being effectually applied to that purpose. In those which we have so briefly reviewed, it is
gratifying to perceive an immense advance, both in principle and practice, over similar works
exhibited even at so comparatively short a period since as the Great Exhibition of 1851. It is
true that the styles adopted are of rather a restricted nature, being for the most part either some
special phase of Italian or Mediaeval art; but time will naturally be productive of greater variety,
and besides other styles of the past, revived and re-adapted, wo shall doubtless also obtain ideas
of greater originality.
WALL-DEOOBATION,
BY ME. OWEN AND MESSES. GEEEN & KING, LONDON.
A MONG the exhibitors in Class 30—Furniture and Decoration—were to be seen several very
-/-~-*- good examples of the state of internal decoration in this country, from which we have
selected, in the present case, a portion of a panel exhibited by Mr. A. Owen, and a similar subject
contributed by Messrs. Green & King.
Mr. Owen, who received Honourable mention from the International Jury of his class for his
"interior decorations and furniture, &c, for good design and workmanship," exhibited four pieces
of a highly decorative nature, two of which were furnished with panels, excellently painted with
coloured Raffaellesqiie ornament on a gold ground: a portion of one of these we have selected
for illustration. Messrs. Green & King forwarded two pieces of wall-decoration in the Renaissance
style, both very good, and one of the same description as that of Mr. Owen, which we have
given in the accompanying plate.
The decorator's art has made very rapid strides within the last quarter of a century, and most
satisfactory results have arisen from the numerous works which have been published on the
subject, from the institution of International Exhibitions, and from the impulse given to internal
decoration through the revival of a style of architecture in which coloured ornamentation, founded
on excellent principles, forms a prominent feature. We are happy to record the names of some
of the principal promoters of this branch of art; such as Mr. Owen Jones, to whose refined taste,
untiring industry, and sound theories on decoration, this country certainly is deeply indebted for
the advance it has made in decorative art; the late A. "Welby Pugin, to whom, in one particular
style of art, the same remarks apply; Mr. Digby Wyatt, who by precept and practice has aided
greatly the success of the movement; Mr. J. Gregory Crace, who by his executed works has
always evinced a highly-refined taste, and a judicious sense of the use of ornament; the late
John Thomas, who brought to bear on this subject natural genius of a very unusual order, and
showed an amount of knowledge of the subject which could have hardly been expected from one
so much engaged on sculpture. Nor have our principal architects in their great works been
behindhand in the application and advancement of internal decoration to the buildings erected
by them; and the names of Sir C. Barry, Mr. Sidney Smirke, R.A., Mr. Tite, M.P., and a worthy
phalanx of their fellow-professionals, will always be remembered as among the earliest promoters
of that system of internal polychromatic decoration which has now become a characteristic of our
great public buildings.
In the present Exhibition, besides those gentlemen whose works we have illustrated, should
be mentioned with commendation Mr. Coulton's allegorical arabesque decoration in the style of
Louis Seize; Mr. Earle's drawing-room decorations; Mr. Kershaw's wall-decoration, of which
we have been only able to give one design as a background to Plate 56. The imitation silk panel
for a drawing-room by this exhibitor was especially deserving of notice. Mr. Kershaw's cleverness
iu his imitation woods and marbling was so well established at the Great Exhibition of 1851, and
again at Paris in 1855, that it requires no further comment from us. Mr. Arthur's ornamental
panel and pilaster was a work of very unusual merit; and Mr. Lainson's pilasters, enriched with
paintings on satin, were characterized by good design and clever execution. The church and
domestic decorations in the Mediaeval style by the Messrs. Hayward consisted of a groat variety
of designs, all good in principle and colour; the productions of Messrs. Harland & Fisher, designed
also in the Medieval style, were of a very high order of merit. Space prevents our noticing the
works of other exhibitors, which, if not actually illustrative of wall-decoration, were capable of
being effectually applied to that purpose. In those which we have so briefly reviewed, it is
gratifying to perceive an immense advance, both in principle and practice, over similar works
exhibited even at so comparatively short a period since as the Great Exhibition of 1851. It is
true that the styles adopted are of rather a restricted nature, being for the most part either some
special phase of Italian or Mediaeval art; but time will naturally be productive of greater variety,
and besides other styles of the past, revived and re-adapted, wo shall doubtless also obtain ideas
of greater originality.