Story Ore Blog: success wallpaper

Saturday, October 15, 2011

success wallpaper

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In 1806, in collaboration with the artist Jean-Gabriel Charvet, Dufour et Cie produced a twenty-panel set of scenic wallpaper entitled Sauvages de la Mer du Pacifique (Savages of the Pacific), which became the biggest success of the company. It was the largest panoramic wallpaper of its time, and marked the burgeoning of a French industry in panoramic wallpapers. Dufour realized almost immediate success from the sale of these papers and enjoyed a lively trade with America. The Neoclassic spirit currently in favor was accented handsomely in houses of the Federal period by the exaggerated elegance of Charvet's scenes. Like most of eighteenth century wallpapers, the panorama was designed to be hung above a dado.

For many years it was believed that Joseph Dufour was born in 1752. An error in his place of birth was the source of the mistake. Indeed, another Joseph Dufour was born in Mâcon, in 1752, whilst the founder of the maunufacture was born in Tramayes in 1757 as the second child of Claude Dufour and Francoise Braillon.

Captain Cook first sailed from England to the South Seas in 1769. He made three expeditions before his death in 1779, and his adventures captured the imaginations of many Europeans at a time when there was considerable interest in the "primitive" and "exotic". His discoveries lent support to the prevailing notion of the inherent moral superiority of "the noble savage", an idea expressed in the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). In 1784, accounts of Cook's voyages were set forth in an official three-volume publication. Accompanying this was a separate folio atlas containing 61 engravings of landscapes, portraits, and indigenous artifacts.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia), Historic Deerfield (Deerfield, Massachusetts), the Honolulu Academy of Arts and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco usually have Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique on display.