American or British School

Michael Whiteway, London
Christopher Wood Gallery, London, 1991

Charlotte Gere, Nineteenth-Century Decoration, The Art of the Interior, New York, 1989, pp. 310-11, illustrated no. 366

Remnants of adhesive along top edge do not disturb image, faint mat stain along extreme left and right edges. Work is affixed to mat board with three paper hinges along top edge.
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The present work both evidences the influence of the British Aesthetic movement in American design of the late nineteenth century as well as how the style was newly interpreted (which in turn makes a definitive attribution to one country or the other challenging). As Charlotte Gere suggests, the side cabinet, fireplace tiles and stylized floral decorations of the wallpaper are similar to those designed by Edward William Godwin, William Morris, Walter Crane, and Bruce Talbert – though with noticeable differences, such as stained, grained wood used in favor of ebonized surfaces (Gere, p. 308, 311). Japonisme elements abound in the various porcelains displayed in the room and in more stylized elements, such as the floral pattern of the wallpaper and the geometric pattern of the dado (lower part of the wall).