DECORATION OF BUILDINGS.
DIVISION I.--GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS--CEILINGS.
Having considered furniture, the formation of which requires a
knowledge of construction, or of what we may term structural art, we
pass on to notice principles involved in the decoration of surfaces,
or in "surface decoration," as it is usually called. We commence by
considering how rooms should be decorated; yet, in so doing, we are
met at the very outset with a great difficulty, as the nature of the
decoration of a room should be determined by the character of its
architecture. My difficulty rests here. How am I to tell you what is
the just decoration for a room, when the suitability of the decoration
is often dependent upon even structural and ornamental details; and
when, in all cases, the character of the decoration should be in
harmony with the character of the architecture? Broadly, if a building
is in the Gothic style, all that it contains in the way of decoration,
and of furniture also, should be Gothic. If the building is Greek, the
decorations and furniture should be Greek. If the building is Italian,
all its decorations and furniture should be Italian, and so on.
But there are further requirements. Each term that I have now
employed, as expressive of a style of architecture, is more or less
generic in character, and is therefore too broad for general use. What
is usually termed Gothic architecture, is a group of styles having
common origin and resemblances, known to the architect as the
Semi-Norman or Transition style, which occurred in the twelfth century
under Henry II. (it was at this time that the pointed arch was first
employed). The Early English, which was developed in the end of the
twelfth and early part of the thirteenth century, under Richard I.,
John, and Henry III.; the Decorated, which occurred at the end of the
thirteenth, and early portion of the fourteenth century, under Edward
I., Edward II., and Edward III.; the Perpendicular, which occurred at
the latter part of the fourteenth, and through the greater portion of
the fifteenth century, under Richard II., Henry IV., V., and VI.,
Edward IV. and V., and Richard III.; and, lastly, the Tudor, which
occurred at the end of the fifteenth, and the beginning of the
sixteenth century, under Henry VII. and Henry VIII. All these styles
are popularly spoken of as one, and are expressed by the one
term--Gothic. It is so also, to an extent, with the Greek, Roman, and
Italian styles, for each of these appears in various modifications of
character, but into such details we will not enter: it must suffice
to notice that the character of the decoration must be not only
broadly in the style of the architecture of the building which it is
intended to beautify, but it must be similar in nature to the ornament
produced at precisely the same date as the architecture which has been
employed for the building.
It must not be supposed that I am an advocate of reproducing works, or
even styles of architecture, such as were created in times gone by,
for I am not. The peoples of past ages carefully sought to ascertain
their wants--the wants resulting from climate--the wants resulting
from the nature of their religion--the wants resulting from social
arrangements--the wants imposed by the building material at command.
We, on the contrary, look at a hundred old buildings, and without
considering our wants, as differing from those of our forefathers,
take a bit from one and a bit from another, or we reproduce one almost
as it stands, and thus we bungle on, instead of seeking to raise such
buildings as are in all respects suited to our modern requirements.
Things are, however, much better in this respect than they were. Bold
men are dealing with the Gothic style in its various forms. Scott,
Burgess, Street, and many others are venturing to alter it; and thus,
while it is losing old characteristics, and is acquiring new elements,
it is already assuming a character which has nobility of expression,
truthfulness of structure, and suitability to our special
requirements. In time to come, further changes will doubtless be made;
and thus the style which arose as an imitation of the past will have
become new, through constantly departing from the original type, and
as constantly adopting new elements.
I have said that the decoration of a building should be brought about
by the employment of such ornament as was, in time past, associated
with the particular form of architecture employed in the building to
be decorated, if a precisely similar form of architecture previously
existed. Let not the ornament, however, be a mere servile imitation of
what has gone before, but let the designer study the ornament of
bygone ages till he understands and _feels_ its spirit, and then let
him strive to produce new forms and new combinations in the spirit of
the ornament of the past.
This must also be carefully noted--that the ornament of a particular
period does not consist merely of the forms employed in the
architecture, drawn in colour on the wall, or the ceiling, as the case
may be. The particular form of ornament used in association with some
forms of Gothic architecture was very different in character from what
we might expect from the nature of the architecture itself, and did
not to any extent consist of flatly-treated crockets, gable ends,
trefoils, cinque-foils, etc. The ornament of the past must be studied
in its purity, and not from those wretched attempts at the production
of Gothic decoration which we often see.
In what we may call the typical English house of the present day there
is really no architecture, and if such a building is to be decorated
it is almost legitimate to employ any style of ornamentation. In such
a case I should choose a style which has no very marked
features--which is not strongly Greek, or strongly Gothic, or strongly
Italian; and if there is the necessary ability, I should say try and
produce ornaments having novelty of character, and yet showing your
knowledge of the good qualities of all styles that are past. If this
is attempted, care must be exercised in order to avoid getting a mere
combination of elements from various styles as one ornament. Nothing
can be worse than to see a bit of Greek, a fragment of Egyptian, an
Alhambraic scroll, a Gothic flower, and an Italian husk associated
together as one ornament; unless this were done advisedly and in order
to meet a very special want, such an ornamental composition would be
detestable. What I recommend is the production of new forms; but the
new composition may have the vigour of the best Gothic ornament, the
severity of Egyptian, the intricacy of the Persian, the gorgeousness
of the Alhambra, and so on, only it must not imitate in detail the
various styles of the past.
Now as to the decoration of a room. If one part only can be decorated,
let that one part be the ceiling. Nothing appears to me more strange
than that our ceilings, which can be properly seen, are usually white
in middle-class houses, while the walls, which are always in part
hidden, and even the floor, on which we tread, should have colour and
pattern applied to them; and of this I am certain, that, considered
from a decorative point of view, our ordinary treatment is wrong.
We glory in a clear blue sky overhead, and we speak of the sky as
increasing in beauty as it becomes deeper and deeper in tint. Thus the
depth of the tint of the Italian sky is familiar to us all. Why, then,
make our ceilings white? I often ask this question, and am told that
the whiteness renders the ceiling almost invisible; hence it is
preferred. This idea is very absurd; first, because blue is the most
ethereal and most distant of all colours (see Chap. II., page 33);
and, second, do we not build a house with the view of procuring
shelter? hence why do we seek to realise the feeling that we are
without a covering over our heads? We only like a white ceiling
because we have been accustomed to such from infancy, and because we
have been taught to regard a clean white ceiling as all that is to be
desired. I knew a Yorkshire lady who, upon being asked by her husband
whether she would like the drawing-room ceiling decorated, replied
that she thought not, as she could not then have it re-whitewashed
every year. The idea was clean certainly. Blue, I have said, is
ethereal in character; it is so, and may become exceedingly so if of
medium depth and of a grey hue; hence, if a mere atmospheric effect
was sought, it would be desirable that this colour be used on the
ceiling rather than white. But, as we have just said, invisibility of
the ceiling is absurd, as it is our protection from the weather.
Further, the ceiling may become an object of great beauty, and it can
be seen as a whole. Why then neglect the opportunity of arranging a
beautiful object when there is no reason to the contrary? We like a
beautiful coloured vase, or, if we do not, we can have it whitewashed,
or even dispense with it altogether. We like beautiful walls, or we
would have them whitewashed also; indeed, we like our surroundings
generally beautiful. Why not, then, have beautiful ceilings,
especially as they can be seen complete, while the wall is in part
hidden by furniture and pictures?
[Illustration: Fig. 51.]
I will suppose that we have an ordinary room to deal with. First, take
away the wretched plaster ornament in the centre of the ceiling, for
it is sure to be bad. There is not one such ornament out of a thousand
that can be so treated as to make the ceiling look as well as it would
do without it. Now place all over the ceiling a flat painted or
stencilled pattern, a pattern which repeats equally in all directions
(as Fig. 51), and let this pattern be in blue (of any depth) and
white, or in blue (of any depth) and cream-colour, and it is sure to
look well (the blue being the ground, and the cream-colour or white
the ornament).
Simple patterns in cream-colour on blue ground, but having a black
outline, also look well (Fig. 52); and these might be prepared in
paper, and hung on the ceiling as common paper-hangings, if cheapness
is essential. Gold ornaments on a deep blue ground, with black
outline, also look rich and effective. These are all, however, simple
treatments, for any amount of colour may be used on a ceiling,
provided the colours are employed in very small masses, and perfectly
mingled, so that the effect produced is that of a rich coloured bloom
(see Chap. II., page 46). A ceiling should be beautiful, and should
also be manifest; but if it must be somewhat indistinct, in order that
the caprices of the ignorant be humoured, let the pattern be in
middle-tint or pale blue and white only.
[Illustration: Fig. 52.]
I like to see the ceiling of a room covered all over with a suitable
pattern, but I do not at all object to a large central ornament only,
or to a centre ornament and corners; especially if the cornice is
heavy, so as to give compensating weight to the margin. I have
recently designed and seen carried out one or two centre ornaments for
drawing-rooms, which ornaments were twenty-one feet in diameter. A
centre ornament, if properly treated, may be very large without
looking heavy; it may, indeed, extend at least two-thirds of the way
from the centre to the margin of the ceiling. I do not speak of
plaster ornaments, but of flat decorations.
If the ceiling is flat all ornament placed upon it must not only be
flat also, but must not fictitiously represent relief, for no shaded
ornament can be pleasant when placed as the decoration of a flat
architectural surface.
I have already noticed that the decoration of a room should be in
character with its architecture, but that while this should be so, the
ornament applied by way of enrichment should not be a servile copy of
the decorative forms employed in ages gone by, but should be such as
is new in character, while yet of the spirit of the past.
[Illustration: Fig. 53.]
Many circumstances tend to determine the nature of the decoration
which should be applied to a ceiling: thus, if a ceiling is
structurally divided into square panels, the character of the ornament
is thereby restricted, and should these panels be large it will
probably be desirable that each be fitted with the same ornament;
while if they are small three or four different patterns may be
employed, if arranged in some orderly or methodical manner.
[Illustration: Fig. 54.]
A ceiling may also have the joists or beams visible upon it: in this
case the decoration would have to be of a very special character. The
bottoms of the joists might have a string pattern upon them (a running
pattern), as the "Greek key," or guilloche; whilst the sides might
have either a running pattern, or a pattern with an upward tendency,
as the "Greek honeysuckle;" and the ceiling intervening between the
joists might have a running pattern, or better, a star, or diaper
pattern, or it might have bands running in the opposite direction to
the joists, so as, with them, to form squares, which squares might be
filled with ornament.
[Illustration: Fig. 55.]
If, however, the ceiling is flat, and is not divided into sections
structurally, almost any "setting out" of the surface may be employed,
as Fig. 53; or a large centre ornament, as Figs. 54 and 55; or a
rosette distributed over the entire surface, as Fig. 56. In any case
it is not necessary or even desirable that the ornament be in relief
upon the ceiling. Flatly treated ornaments may be employed with
advantage, and all fictitious appearance of relief, as we have already
said, must be avoided.
There are so many different ways of setting out ceilings, that I
cannot attempt even to make any suggestions. I would simply say,
however, Avoid an architectural setting out, if there are no
structural members; for ornament which is flat may spread in any
manner over a surface without even appearing to need structural
supports. As to the colour of a ceiling if there is to be no ornament
upon it, let it be a cream-colour (formed of white with a little
middle-chrome) rather than white. Cream-colour always looks well upon
a ceiling, and gives the idea of purity. A grey-blue is also a very
desirable colour for a ceiling, such as is formed of pale ultramarine,
white, and a little raw umber, just sufficient to make the blue
slightly grey (or atmospheric). In depth this blue should be about
half-way between the ultramarine and white. Another effect which I
like is produced by the full colour of pure (or almost pure)
ultramarine. In this case the cornice should be carefully coloured,
and pale blue and white should prevail in it, but a little pure red
must be present.
[Illustration: Fig. 56.]
A further and very desirable effect is produced by placing pale
cream-coloured stars irregularly over the pale blue, or even the deep
blue ceiling, or by placing pale blue stars upon the cream-coloured
ceiling. The stars should vary for an ordinary room ceiling (say a
room sixteen feet square by ten feet high) from about three inches
from point to point down to one inch; the larger stars having six
points; others being smaller and with five points; and the small ones
having, some four points, and some three. If such stars are
irregularly (without order) intermixed over the ceiling, and yet are
somewhat equally dispersed, a very pleasing and interesting effect
will thereby be produced. This effect is in much favour with the
Japanese. The stars, however, should be smaller if placed on a deep,
than on a pale, blue ground.
Another good effect is produced by giving the ceiling the colour of
Bath, or Portland, stone, and starring it with a deeper tint of the
same colour. This effect is improved by each star having a very fine
outline of a yet darker tint of the same colour.
I should recommend those interested in the decoration of ceilings to
study carefully the Egyptian, Alhambra, and Greek Courts at the
Crystal Palace, Sydenham, especially the two last named; also to
notice the ceiling in St. James's Great Hall, Piccadilly, London, and
the ceiling of Ushaw College chapel near Durham. The ceilings in the
Oriental Courts, by Mr. Owen Jones, at the South Kensington Museum are
worthy of careful notice; but the Renaissance ceilings in other parts
of the Museum are both wrong in principle and are bad examples of
their style. The structurally formed glass ceiling of the Crystal
Palace Bazaar in Oxford Street, London, and still better, the ceiling
of Mr. Osler's glass warehouse in Oxford Street, are well worthy of
note.
On the Continent we very frequently meet with ceilings on which large
pictures have been painted, as in the Louvre and the Luxembourg in
Paris; and the authorities of the South Kensington Museum are making
efforts to introduce this style into England, but such pictorial
ceilings are in every way wrong.
1st. A ceiling is a flat surface, hence all decoration placed upon it
should be flat also.
2nd. A picture can only be correctly seen from one point, whereas the
decoration of a ceiling should be of such a character that it can be
properly seen from any part of the room.
3rd. Pictures have almost invariably a right and wrong way upwards. A
picture placed on a ceiling is thus wrong way upwards to almost all
the guests in the room.
4th. In order to the proper understanding of a picture, you must see
the whole of its surface at one time; this is very difficult to do
without almost breaking your neck, or being on your back on the floor,
if the picture is on the ceiling; whereas an ornament which consists
of repeated parts may render a ceiling beautiful without requiring
that the whole ceiling be seen at the one glance.
Most of the French pictorial ceilings are so painted that they are
properly seen when the spectator stands with his back close to the
fire. This is very awkward, as the rules of society do not allow us to
stand in this position before company. Pictorial works are altogether
out of place on a ceiling; they ought to be framed and hung right way
upwards upon walls where they can be seen. We have a well-known
painted ceiling at the Greenwich Hospital.
Arabesque ceilings, such as that of the Roman Court at the Crystal
Palace, are also very objectionable.
What can be worse than festoons of leafage, like so many sausages,
painted upon a ceiling, with griffins, small framed pictures,
impossible flowers, and feeble ornament, all with fictitious light and
shade? But not content with such absurdities and incongruities, the
festoons often hang upwards on vaulted or domed ceilings, rather than
downwards. Such ornaments arose when Rome, intoxicated with its
conquests, yielded itself up to luxury and vice rather than to a
consideration of beauty and truth.
Decorations like these were to an extent again revived by the great
painter Raphael; but it must ever be remembered that Raphael, while
one of the greatest of painters, was no ornamentist. It requires all
the energy of a life to become a great painter; and it requires all
the energy of a life to become a great ornamentist; hence it is not
expected that the one man should be great at the two arts.
In all ages when decorative art has flourished, ceilings have been
decorated. The Egyptians decorated their ceilings, so did the Greeks,
the Byzantines, the Moors, and the people of our Middle Ages, and a
light ceiling appears not to have been esteemed as essential, or as in
many cases desirable. It is strange that so few of our houses and
public buildings contain rooms with decorated ceilings; but the want
is already felt, the fashion has set in, and many are at this present
moment being prepared. We must get simple modes of enrichment for
general rooms--modes of treatment which shall be effective, and yet
not expensive--and then we may hope that they will become general.
DIVISION II.--DECORATIONS OF WALLS.
We must now devote ourselves to the consideration of wall decoration,
or to the manner in which ornament should be applied to walls with the
view of rendering them decorative.
It will appear absurd to say that all ornament that is applied to a
wall should be such as will render the wall more beautiful than it
would be without it; but this statement is needed, for I have seen
many walls ornamented in such a manner, that they would have looked
much better if they had been perfectly plain, and simply washed over
with a tint of colour.
To ornament is to beautify. To decorate is to ornament. But a surface
cannot be beautified unless the forms which are drawn upon it are
graceful, or bold, or vigorous, or true, and unless the colours
applied to it are harmonious. Yet how many walls do we meet with even
in good houses--walls of corridors, walls of staircases, walls of
dining-rooms, walls of libraries, and, indeed, walls of every kind of
room--which are rendered offensive, rather than pleasing, by the
decorations they bear.
A wall may look well without decoration strictly so called, and this
statement leads me to notice the various ways in which walls may be
treated with the view of rendering them beautiful.
A wall may be simply tinted either with "distemper" colour, or oil
colour "flatted." Distemper colour gives the best effect, and is much
the cheapest, but it is not durable, and cannot be washed. Oil colour
when flatted makes a nice wall, whether "stippled" or plain, and is
both durable and washable. An entire wall should never be varnished.
I say that a wall can look well even if not decorated. Let me give one
or two instances; but, perhaps, I had better give treatments for the
entire room, including the ceiling, and not for the wall simply.
[Illustration: Fig. 57.]
[Illustration: Fig. 58.]
[Illustration: Fig. 59.]
A good effect of a very plain and inexpensive character would be
produced by having a black skirting, a cream-colour wall (this colour
to be made of the colour called middle-chrome and white, and to
resemble in depth the best pure cream), a cornice coloured with pale
blue of greyish tint, with deep blue, white, and a slight line of red,
and a ceiling of blue of almost any depth. The ceiling colour to be
pure French ultramarine, or this ultramarine mixed with white and a
touch of raw umber (the cornice blues to be made in the same way). The
red in the cornice to be deep vermilion if very narrow (one-sixteenth
of an inch), or carmine if broad.[24]
[24] In some parts of the country it is customary to wash the cornice
over with quick-lime. If this has been done the lime must be carefully
removed, for lime will turn carmine black.
[Illustration: DECORATIVE DESIGN.
_Illustrating Cornice, Ceiling & Wall Colouring._]
A room of a slightly more decorative character would be produced by
making the lower three feet of the wall of a different colour (by
forming a dado) from the upper part of the wall: thus, if the other
parts of the room were coloured as in the example just given, the
lower three feet might be red (vermilion toned to a rich Indian red
with ultramarine blue) or chocolate (purple-brown and white, with a
little orange-chrome); this lower portion of the wall being separated
from the upper cream-coloured portion by a line of black an inch
broad, or better by a double line, the upper line being an inch broad,
and the lower line three-eighths of an inch, the lines being separated
from each other by five-eighths of the red or chocolate.
I like the formation of a dado, for it affords an opportunity of
giving apparent stability to the wall by making its lower portion
dark; and furniture is invariably much improved by being seen against
a dark background. The occupants of a room always look better when
viewed in conjunction with a dark background, and ladies' dresses
certainly do. The dark dado gives the desired background without
rendering it necessary that the entire wall be dark. If the furniture
be mahogany, it will be wonderfully improved by being placed against a
chocolate wall.
[Illustration: Fig. 60.]
The dado of a room need not be plain; indeed, it may be enriched to
any extent. It may be plain with a bordering separating it from the
wall, such as Figs. 57, 58, and 59, or the coloured border on Plate I.
(frontispiece); or it may have a simple flower regularly dispersed
over it; or it may be covered with a geometrical repeating pattern, in
either of which cases it would have a border; or it may be enriched
with a specially designed piece of ornament, as Fig. 60. This
particular pattern should not, however, be enlarged to a height of
more than twenty to twenty-four inches; but if of this width, and
above a skirting of twelve or fifteen inches, it would look well.
I have designed two or three narrow dado papers for Messrs. Wylie and
Lockhead, of Glasgow, which are about eighteen inches broad, and are
printed in the direction of the length of the paper, so as to save
unnecessary joins; and Messrs. Jeffrey and Co., of Essex Road,
Islington, are issuing a complete series of my decorations for walls,
dados, and ceilings.
If the dado is enriched with ornament, and the cornice is coloured,
and a pattern spreads all over the ceiling, the walls can well be
plain, but they may be covered with a simple "powdering" as the
patterns in Fig. 6l, if these are in soft colours, or with patterns
such as those set forth in colours on Plate I.; but these, especially
that on the blue ground, would only be used where a very rich effect
is desired.
[Illustration: Fig. 61.]
A good room would be produced by pattern Fig. 52 being on the ceiling
in dark blue and cream-colour, by the cornice being coloured with a
prevalence of dark blue, the walls being cream-colour down to the
dado; the border separating the dado from the wall being black
ornament on a dull orange-colour; and by the dado being chocolate with
a black rosette upon it; the skirting boards being bright black. The
dado may or may not be varnished; the upper part of the wall can only
be "dead" (not varnished--dull). If the room is high a bordering may
run round the upper portion of the wall, about three to four inches
below the cornice; such a border as Fig. 62 may he employed in dull
orange and chocolate.
A citrine wall comes well with a deep blue, or blue and white ceiling,
if blue prevails in the cornice, and this wall may have a dark blue
(ultramarine and black with a little white) dado, or a rich maroon
dado (brown-lake). If the blue dado is employed the skirting should be
indigo, which, when varnished and seen in conjunction with the blue,
will appear as black as jet. (See the coloured examples on Plate II.,
and remarks on colour on pages 45 and 46.)
Walls are usually papered in middle-class houses. I must not object to
this universal custom; but I do say, try to avoid showing the joinings
of the various strips. In all cases where possible cut the paper to
the pattern, and not in straight lines, for straight joinings are very
objectionable. If you use paper for walls, use it artistically, and
not as so much paper. Let a dado be formed of one paper, the dado
bordering (dado rail) of a suitable paper bordering; the upper part of
the wall being covered by another paper of simple and just design, and
of such colour as shall harmonise with the dado. Proceed as an artist,
and not as a mere workman. Think out an ornamental scheme, and then
try to realise the desired effect. Avoid all papers in which huge
bunches of flowers and animals or the human figure are depicted. The
best for all purposes are those of a simple geometrical character, or
in which designs similar to those in Fig. 6l are "powdered" or placed
at regular intervals over a plain ground.
[Illustration: Fig. 62.]
Just as the ceiling ornament must accord in character with the
architecture of the room in which it is placed, so must the wall
decoration be of the same style as the architecture of the room.
Indeed, whatever we have said respecting the harmony of the ceiling
decoration with the architecture of the building, applies equally to
the ornamentation of the wall.
It has been customary to arrange walls into panels when decorating
them, and of this mode of treatment we give one illustration (Fig.
63); yet nothing can be more absurd than such a treatment, unless the
wall is architecturally (structurally) arched. A wall may be so formed
that some parts are thick, so as to give the required strength, while
other portions are thin. In such a case the wall would be formed of
arched recesses and thickened piers alternately. This being the case,
the decoration should be so applied as to emphasise, or render
apparent, this arched structure; but if the wall is of one thickness
throughout, its division into arches is absurd and foolish.
[Illustration: Fig. 63.]
We sometimes see great follies, and even gross untruths, perpetrated
with the view of bringing about the so-called decoration of a room.
Thus it is not unfrequently that we meet with imitation pillars,
recesses, and arches as the so-called ornamentation of a room.
In low music halls we are not surprised by such decorations, for we do
not look for truth or any manifestation of delicacy of feeling in such
places. Falsity and the untrue appear in natural juxtaposition with
the debased and the vulgar. Sham marble pillars, a fictitious and
merely imitative architecture, an assumed and unreal, yet coarse and
vulgar, gorgeousness, are the natural adjuncts of immorality and vice;
but such falsities cannot be tolerated in the abodes of those who
pretend to purity and truth, nor in the buildings which they frequent;
yet even the new Albert Hall has sham marble pillars (I say this to
our shame), and but recently I visited a church near Edgware, in which
there is a display of false decoration such as I never before saw.
Here we find sham pillars, giving a false architecture; sham niches,
containing sham statues; sham clouds, forming an absurd ceiling; and
almost every falsity which a falsely constituted mind could
perpetrate.
How strange it is that in a church, where purity and truth are taught,
the whole of the decorations should be a sham! It is said that if you
want to hear a fierce quarrel, and to see true hatred, you must seek
it in religious sects and among theological discussionists. On the
same principle, I suppose, we must prepare ourselves for a display of
the worst art-falsity in the sacred edifice. Perhaps the idea is that
of contrast. As the teetotal lecturer had a drunken man by him as a
frightful example of what was to be avoided, so the decorations of
this church may be intended as a warning, rather than as an example of
what should be followed. Happily such churches as this are rare, and
it can be truly said that ecclesiastical architecture and decoration
has made great strides with us in recent years, and that in very many
instances it is rigidly truthful as well as beautiful.
Before leaving the consideration of wall decorations, I must object to
all imitations, as sham marbles, granites, etc., for no wall can be
satisfactory which is to any extent a display of false grandeur; and
this is curious, that in many cases it costs more to produce an
imitation marble staircase than it would to line the same walls with
the marbles imitated. I have known a case in which the imitation has
cost double what the genuine stone would have cost, and such a case is
not exceptional, for hand-polished work is always expensive. To
imitations of marbles and granites, as I have already said, I strongly
object, and of the genuine stone I am not fond, unless sparingly and
judiciously used. My objections to its free use are these:--1st.
Harmony of colour depends upon great exactness of tint. This exactness
is rarely attainable in the case of two marbles. One stone may,
however, be brought into direct and perfect harmony with a coloured
wall, by the tint of the wall being carefully suited to the marble.
2nd. The true artist thinks less of the costliness of the material of
which he forms his works than of the art-effect produced. Thus the old
Greeks, who were full of art-feeling and refinement, coloured the
buildings which they constructed of white marble, and they certainly
thereby improved them; for colour, if harmoniously employed, lends to
objects a new charm--a charm which they would not without it possess.
I must further say, before leaving our present subject, that all
walls, however decorated, should serve as a background to whatever
stands in front of them. Thus they must retire even behind the
furniture by their unobtrusiveness.
The order of arrangement in furnishing must be this. The living beings
in a room should be most attractive and conspicuous, and the dress of
man should be of such a character as to secure this. Ladies can now
employ any amount of colour in their attire; but poor man, however
noble, cannot by his dress be distinguished from his butler; and,
worst of all, both are dressed in an unbecoming and inartistic manner.
Next come the furniture and draperies--the one or the other having
prominence according to circumstances; then come the wall and floor,
both of which are to serve as backgrounds to all that stands in front
of them. In decorating walls, or in judging of the merit or
suitability of wall decorations, this must always be taken into
consideration, that they are but enriched backgrounds; and it should
also be remembered that the nature of the enrichment applied is
determined, to a great extent, by the character of the architecture of
the building of which the wall forms a part.
We come now to consider wall-papers, which are hangings prepared with
the view of enabling us to decorate our walls at comparatively small
cost. I may confess that I am not very fond of wall-papers under any
circumstances. I prefer a tinted or painted wall. Yet they are largely
used, and will be for a long time to come. I have already said that if
wall-papers are used they should not be joined together with straight
lines, and that we ought to consider them as so much art-material
which should be used artistically.
As to the nature of the pattern which a wall-paper should have, it is
almost impossible to speak, as there are endless varieties; but as a
rule it may be said that those consisting of small, simple, repeated
parts, which are low-toned or neutral in colour, are the best. Most
wall-paper patterns are larger than is desirable. The pattern can
scarcely be too simple, and it should in all cases consist of flat
ornament.
If the ornament is very good, and the pattern is the work of a true
artist, it may be larger, for then the parts will be balanced and
harmonised in a manner that could not be expected from a less skilful
hand; but even if by the most talented designer, it must ever be
remembered that he has designed it at random, and not as a suitable
decoration for any particular room. The man who selects the pattern
for a particular wall must choose that which is suitable to the
special case.
The effect of a wall-paper is materially affected by many
circumstances. Thus, by the quantity of light admitted to the
room--whether the room is dark or light; by the aspect, whether it
receives the sun's rays direct or does not; by the character of the
light, as whether direct from the sky, or reflected from a green lawn,
or red-brick wall. All these things must be considered, and what looks
well in the pattern-book may look bad on a wall.
[Illustration: Fig. 64.]
[Illustration: Fig. 65.]
[Illustration: Fig. 66.]
[Illustration: Fig. 67.]
As to colour, the best wall-paper patterns are those which consist of
somewhat strong colours in very small masses--masses so small that the
general effect of the paper is rich, low-toned, and neutral, and yet
has a glowing colour-bloom; but these are rarely to be met with.
It was a fashion some time since to make wall-papers in imitation of
woven fabrics, and this fashion has not wholly disappeared yet, absurd
though it be. It arose through the accident of a designer of
wall-paper patterns having been a shawl pattern designer, and having a
number of small shawl patterns on hand, which he disposed of as
wall-paper patterns. A pattern which is suitable for a woven fabric is
rarely suitable to a printed fabric, and especially when the one
pattern is to be seen in folds on a moving object, and the other flat
on a fixed surface. And at all times imitation by one material of
another is untruthful, and it becomes specially absurd when we think
that almost every material is capable of producing some good
art-effect which no other material can. We should always seek to make
each material as distinctive in its art-character as we can, and to
cause each to appear as beautiful as possible in that particular
manner in which it can most naturally be worked.
[Illustration: Fig. 68.]
A word should be said about the particular character which a
wall-paper pattern should have, but the remarks which I am now about
to make will apply equally to all patterns employed as wall
decorations. If we view trees or plants, as we see them against the
sky as a background, they are objects which point upwards and have a
bilateral symmetry--their halves are alike (Figs. 64 and 65)--or are
more or less irregular in form, and when seen in this view we may
regard them as natural wall decorations. Our wall patterns, then, may
point upwards, as in Fig. 61, and be bilateral or otherwise; but it
must be remembered that when the flowers of a primrose protrude from a
bank they are regular radiating, or star, ornaments. I think that it
is legitimate for us to use on a wall star, or regular radiating
ornaments, as well as those having an upward tendency.
[Illustration: Fig. 69.]
I have said that when seen from the side plants are bilateral, or are
more or less irregular. As I have referred to plants as furnishing us
with types of ornament, I should not be doing rightly were I to leave
this statement in its present form; for the tendency of the vital
force of all plants is to produce structures of rigidly symmetrical
character; but insects, which eat buds and leaves, and blights, winds,
and frosts, so act upon plants as to destroy their normal symmetry,
hence we find an apparent want of symmetry in the arrangement of the
parts of plants.
Respecting the colouring of cornices, a few words should be said. 1st.
Bright colours may here be employed. 2nd. As a rule, get red in shadow
or in shade, blue on flat or hollow surfaces, especially those that
recede from the eye, and yellow on rounded advancing members. 3rd. Use
for red either vermilion or carmine; for blue, ultramarine either pure
or with white; for yellow, middle chrome much diluted with white. 4th.
Use red very sparingly, blue abundantly, the pale yellow in medium
quantity.
Besides primary colours, none others need be used on the cornice. It
is a mistake to use many, or dull, colours, here, but gold may be used
instead of yellow. With the view of explaining the principles which we
have just enunciated by diagrams, we give four illustrations (Figs.
66, 67, 68, 69), which I advise the student to try and colour in
accordance with the principles just set forth.