The new interior; modern decorations for the modern home

Preface

It is hoped that this book will be of practical aid to that large body of intelligent people who are seeking to create for themselves expressive and individual environments of life. It does not aim to set down cut and dried rules and principles, or to attempt to enforce any particular type or style of decoration, but to suggest new possibilities and open new trains of thought by setting forth those fresh and stimulating currents which are influencing the creators of what has been called “the new taste” in interior decoration.

True decoration can never be achieved by ordering an assemblage of furniture from the shop, or by turning over the complete responsibility to the professional decorator. It is far more the result of a gradual adjustment between taste and expression — and as change of taste is usually a sign of growth, so change in our ideals of decoration must be provided for in order to reach a free and spontaneous expression in the end. If this book serves only to impress on the minds of young people the wisdom of laying the foundations of their home simply and unpretentiously and allowing it to evolve and grow with them and their widening interests and experience, instead of burdening themselves with too much and too expensive furniture in the beginning which puts a ban on expansion — it will consider it has fulfilled a worthy mission.

I am indebted for the material and illustrations to those courageous modern decorators and individuals

PREFACE who have severed their bondage to past and present conventions and sought to use their own ingenuity and thought to lay the foundations for a modern period. I wish especially to acknowledge the kindly assistance I have received from the Ascherman Studio, Baron de Meyer, Jeanne Durant Rice, Fayette Barnum, Paul Zimmerman, Bertha Holley, Anton Heilman, Ralph Adams Cram, and Henry Fitch Taylor for the use of his valuable color chart. The design on the cover was inspired by one of Mr. E. Aschermann’s original stencil motifs.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I “Twentieth-Century American” .... 3

II The New Point of View 22

Chapter I “twentieth-century American”

THE contention that America is essentially an inartistic nation and must always look to other countries for her artistic inspiration, is as absurd as it is unfounded. The same power that impelled the hand of a Rembrandt, a Romney, a Durer, or Da Vinci is innate in the American people, and with the knowledge and talents and inspirations of all the countries laid at her feet, America ought to be the richest art producer in the world. That she is too busy achieving financial and economic independence to have much thought for the refinements of life, is a theory no longer tenable. More money is spent by Americans in the purchase of art and art objects than by any other nation, and larger circles are actively interested in the propagation of art than in any other country. The trouble lies in America’s eternal consciousness of her own youth and premature growth, and her perpetual fear of being herself, expressing herself, or placing confidence in her own judgments and abilities, lest she call down the ridicule of the parent countries and her own narrow-minded critics upon her.

Although America was the last to respond to the great European renaissance of the decorative arts and its development has been slower here than in countries where the governments gave it aid, its growth has been steady and healthy and has not failed to attract the attention of Europe and to win by some of its recent brilliant achievements, the warmest recognition and praise. Both Italy and France have bestowed the highest honors in their power upon the remarkable high-fire porcelains of an American woman, Adelaide Alsop Robineau. Persia and France have given the stamp of their approval to the beautifully glazed Durant pottery made in this country. Japan has purchased for her Tokio Museum some examples of the exquisite decorated porcelains of Dorothea Warren O’Hara, and our handwrought silver, jewelry and enameling is fast finding its way into some of the best known foreign collections.

“Curiously enough,” says the English “Studio Year Book,” “the most emphatic doubts concerning the reality of the American artistic growth are heard in the States, and it is in Europe that the possibilities of the American evolution are discerned.”

It seems no longer feasible to doubt our ability to found a new decorative period — that of twentieth century American! — and to sever our slavish dependence upon other times and other countries which, indeed, makes our vaunted Americanism appear hypocritical when we begin to see ourselves as others see us.

SILK BATIK

Charming decorative hanging produced through the revival of an old Javanese process Designed and Executed by Mr. Pieter Meyer and Mr. Bertran Hartmann

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The phrase “Decorative Art” used to apply only to mural painting and sculpture, but the new decorative arts include all those various arts which enter into the decoration of the interiors of homes and public buildings— such as the designing and execution of textile fabrics, metal and woodwork, ceramics, glass, and the decoration of the wall. The removal of the responsibility for the artistic conception of these agencies of decoration from the hands of the artisan and manufacturer, and the placing of it in the hands of the artist and craftsman , is the great achievement of the new movement and the cause to which the present revolution in the ideals of interior decoration is largely due.

In the field of decorative textiles American activity is broad and varied. One line of development has been the regeneration of old American processes and designs which were fast passing out of memory and use. Another shows the tendency to borrow those primitive processes of other countries which have been found to lend themselves especially well to modern decorative uses.

Mr. and Mrs. Talbot in their old Rhode Island mansion outside of Providence have set themselves the task of restoring the Colonial drafts for handweaving which, handed down by memory and embellished by the fancies of successive generations of weavers, lost many of their original earmarks and intentions. While keeping strictly to the spirit of the old designs and using handlooms in their execution, the Talbots have employed the knowledge of all that modern art has evolved in the way of texture and color, creating hangings, bedspreads, and rugs which lend a charm and storied atmosphere to many a room where the early American traditions still linger. This new handweaving is not marred by the shortcomings of the older period.

Colonial embroidery presents an unexplored storehouse of valuable decorative material. Of the designs employed in the needlework of the Colonial period, one writer has said: “Some of the workers evidently

studied nature as seen in the forest, or simple gardens which could be created in the wilderness. Others worked in oriental designs, notably the conventionalized palm leaf familiar in Indian shawls and doubtless suggested by some treasures from a sea captain’s chest. The French influence, too, was easily discernible, and was probably brought in satins and brocades that found their way across the water even in those troublous times. There are strange leaves and stranger flowers, with now and then a grotesque leaf or butterfly, yet all tinctured with Puritan primness.”

The separation of the good old design from its later elaboration with unnecessary spirals and ornaments has been the effort, during twenty years of the Blue and White Society of Deerfield, Massachusetts. To the work they have lent beautiful modern colorings which, had they been accessible, would probably have been the choice of the original needle-woman, and they

“TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN”

have also lent to it the strength and character of modern stitchery. Aside from the quaintness of the work, it has many striking decorative qualities which lend themselves well, in wall panels, cushions, and tablecovers, to the decoration of the modern home, and which are still expressive of certain important phases of American life and character.

The methods of rug-making of the early Colonists are being revived to-day and are demonstrating their interesting possibilities when developed in accordance with modern ideas of design and color. Braided rugs are made from strips of rag dyed the required colors, braided and sewed together row after row. They present a close, flatly woven surface and are exceedingly durable. In the modern rugs the center area is usually in a solid color which is worked out into deeper shades of the same and of black. The opportunity for a wellselected gradation of color in the border and for good strong color in the center, together with the unpretentiousness of its character, make these rugs very effective in certain types of decoration.

Pulled rugs are made from strips of rag or wool dyed to suit the maker, but these strips are pulled through coarse canvas on which a design has been traced, giving the modern artist great leeway. Instead of baskets of flowers which were so popular in the old rugs of this class, conventional and modern symbolic designs have been employed as well as modern colorings, and a high degree of professional finish can be attained in the home-made article. Some charming chair seats in delightful grays, roses, blacks, and yellows have been made by this process, and when attached to stiff little black chairs give a strongly individual touch to an interior.

Of the processes borrowed from other countries, batik making is one of the most effective. It has been used since earliest times in Java where the beauty of the textiles was glowingly reported by Dutch traders. Some time ago the Dutch government undertook a careful study of the process of batik making in order to introduce it into Europe, but the work requires a peculiar kind of skill which has never been successfully developed in Holland.

Before emersing the silk in the dye pot, patterns are carefully drawn in molten beeswax applied from a little copper kettle with a fine spout. If several colors are required, it is redipped again and again, those portions of the design not intended to take the new color being painted out each time in wax. The repeated dippings give the fabric an unusual quality of tone and texture, and the characteristic crackle produced by the crackling of the wax, is particularly adapted to break the monotony of large expanses of background.

The art of batik making was brought to this country in a highly developed state by Mr. Pieter Meyer, who spent his boyhood in Java, and he used it, in conjunc-

HANDWROUGHT SILVER TEA SERVICE By Mr. Arthur Stone

FILIGREE SILVER PLATE Designed and executed by Miss Knight of Boston

BACK VIEW OF HAND MIRROR

In repousse silver, ivory, and cloisonne enamel

Work by Mr. and Mrs. L. B. Dir.on

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tion with a fellow artist, Bertram Hartmann, to produce large and striking decorative effects.

One very large and unusual batik, representing the Japanese goddess Kwannon gazing out across a melting infinity of gold and blue, has furnished the inspiration for the decorative treatment of an entire residence.

In the modern embroidery of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Johannot of Los Angeles and that of the California needlewomen who have come under their influence, one is impressed anew with the possibilities of this venerable craft as a means of fresh and charming artistic expression. A new range of colors is established and a new breadth of composition. The mingling of turquoise and yellow, rose and violet, on the buff ground of a cushion, or hanging, in well defined and decorative stitchery lends a crisp, modern note to a room, which the faded French and Italian work is powerless to accomplish.

A fresh impetus has been brought into the old art of tapestry weaving also. In Mr. Lorenz Kleiser’s adaptations of old designs for modern use there is a high degree of technical and artistic excellence and these, too, have a far greater decorative value for the modern home than the often disintegrating and motheaten originals which are so coveted. Mrs. Vanderhof, an American woman, has accomplished noteworthy feats on the tapestry loom, and in collaboration with one of our best decorative artists, Mr. Maxfield

Parrish, is planning to work out some entirely original and interesting developments.

Both wood block printing and stenciling are old Japanese processes, as is, also, the free hand painting of silk which has had an interesting revival.

Our present achievements in these arts have been dimmed somewhat through confusion with various crude and uncertain first attempts, but under the guidance of Mr. Arthur Dow of Teachers College, New York, a high degree of artistic and technical excellence has been developed. Appreciation of the merits of linens, light silks and cotton fabrics for hangings and upholstery is growing rapidly.

Some interesting attempts have been made to supply the mechanical parts of block printing and stenciling by machinery, leaving the colors and details to be filled in by the hand of the artist. This does away with a great deal of the hardness and monotony of the regulation printed goods and brings them within the reach of the pocket books of a greater number of people.

No textile renaissance, however, which is dependent for its existence upon whole or even partial handwork can ever be far-reaching in its results. No matter how stimulating the work of individual craftsmen may be, it is in the hands of the manufacturer that the ultimate power lies. While some of the American manufacturers have been far-sighted and broad-spirited enough to express modern influences, they are greatly in the minority. The great body of our manufacturers of

“TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN”

decorative textiles seem still laboring in the Dark Ages, continuing to copy fifteenth- and sixteenth-century designs which are a far cry to the modern spirit.

It is high time that the American manufacturer should awake to the realization that the demand of to-day for a high standard in decorative textiles, necessitates their conception by artists and not by draughtsmen.

In the delightful silks and cotton fabrics designed and woven by the pupils of the Rhode Island School of Design, one welcomes a spirit of simplicity and frankness which is a relief from the ornateness of the old French and Italian influences. The life and character which they have brought into the work ought to be sufficient to establish the confidence of manufacturers in our native ability.

In Ceramics American activity is unrivaled. There are hundreds of individual potters throughout the country, reviving every type of pottery and glaze known in the history of the craft, with an art and skill which has not failed to attract attention.

“Porcelains and potteries are being turned out to-day in America that rank or out-rank the finest of the old Sevres and Saxon,” says one European critic.

A response to the subtle qualities of pure form and texture, it is generally conceded, involves a higher order of esthetic appreciation than that of pictorial art. The making of pottery also necessitates not only a high degree of artistic ability, but a considerable amount of technical knowledge. To express the conception of his genius, the potter must be at once modeler, sculptor, painter and chemist. He must also possess invention and intuition so as to avoid the pitfalls scattered along his path, hazards which he meets at every turn in the preparation of his clays, in the working of them, and above all in their firing.

To the making of tiles America has contributed the excellent dull glazed Grueby, the symbolic and picturesque Moravian, and the richly colored Pewabic, Rookwood and Batchelder.

Among the simpler types of hand thrown pottery are the Byrdcliff, the Marblehead, the Dedham, Newcomb and Van Brigle. The Arequipa, executed for philanthropic purposes in California, the Paul Revere of Boston, and the Sharon of New York have also many points of merit.

We are learning to appreciate the value of beautifully formed, textured and colored pottery in decoration and its use is doing away with the trivial and useless things which cluttered the homes of the last generation.

Among the rarest and most difficult types of Ceramic art, the Persian and Chinese glazes of the Durant Kilns and the high fire porcelain of Mrs. Robineau are undoubtedly the best work of its kind being done in any country.

In decorated porcelains we are working in both the under- and the overglaze. Underglaze is accomplished

This is an example of the new American style of mural painting which marks an advance over the allegorical and “cherubimic” decorations of the past Painted, by Robert Chattier

CEILING OF THE TRELLIS ROOM OF THE COLONY CLUB, NEW YORK

‘TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN”

by painting on the pottery body before firing. Of this type the well-known Rookwood ware is an example. Overglaze is the painting upon the surface after the glazing has been applied. This type of work was formerly known as china painting ; but between the superb decoration in brilliant enamels of Dorothea Warren O’Hara and the old-time painted naturalistic roses and violets there is, indeed, a world of difference.

Modern tableware decorated by individual artists has done much to revolutionize taste in that direction and is beginning to bring back to the use of china much of its old piquancy and charm.

In the working of metal, America holds its own with the older countries. “I know of two workers in forged and wrought iron,” says Mr. Ralph Adams Cram, “who are blood brothers of Adam Kraft; three goldsmiths who would gladden the heart of a Cellini.”

For many years American architects failed to appreciate the value of hand-wrought iron, and the efforts to preserve the art in this country were beset with great difficulties. Now, both in the interior and exterior of the house, its distinctive values are beginning to be appreciated.

In hand-wrought silver American silversmiths have nobly carried on the traditions of the Colonial craftsmen. Although we did not escape from the aberration of water coolers propelled by flying angels, cake plates supported by dragons and sea monsters, and bowls and goblets so contorted with relief and chasing that not an inch of the original surface was visible to the eye, the beauty of the simple hammered surface has been rediscovered and is nowhere handled with a greater feeling for form, texture, and modeling than by our contemporary master silversmiths.

The decorative use of silver, as well as its artistic conception, has undergone strange abuses. While the effect of a few well-chosen pieces against a dark wood background has great charm, an assemblage of commercial silver has little more decorative value than a display of household china or linens.

The gross misconception that “Mission” was characteristic American furniture is fortunately being refuted by the interesting and individual modern pieces which have recently been put on the market. Old English cottage furniture and the peasant types of many countries are the inspirations for many excellent modern creations, as well as the classic historic models.

In the larger arts of stained glass and mural painting, the foundations of a new and vital development are apparent.

The pictorial idea which has dominated the making of glass during the last hundred years is gradually giving way to a more decorative treatment. Among the younger school of stained glass artists there is a noticeable return to the simpler and stronger ideals of the earlier periods, but with a new spirit and vitality.

From both pre-Raphael itism and exaggerated allegory, American mural painting is emancipating it-

“TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN”

self and perhaps striking out to a more genuinely decorative development than it has ever realized before. In the remarkable ceiling of tropical birds and foliage painted by Mr. Robert Chanler for the trellis room of the New York Colony Club one sees many new possibilities for an art which seemed to have reached its former high water mark in the depicting of cupids and cherubim sprinkled over an azure sky.

The ravages of materialism appear, after all, negligible when we come to view the work of some of our American enamelers. All the romance of old Florence and of the Gallic and Celtic nations seem mingled in the clear translucent depths, in the fluidity and colorful charm of the caskets and boxes and little objects of intimate use turned out by their brain and fingers.

Chapter II

THE new point of view in the decoration of the home may be characterized as the artist's as opposed to the upholsterer' s.

What would you think of an artist who, sitting before an empty canvas, indulged in the following reflections: “I want to paint a landscape, but I don’t know

just what kind I want to paint. Let me see — a landscape must have trees! Well, who painted the best trees? I think Corot did, yes undoubtedly Corot did, so I can’t go far wrong by starting with a clump of Corot trees. Then I ’d like to have a farmhouse. I always did like farmhouses in landscapes. Those old farmhouses of Constable’s had a lot of charm! And water ! There must be water — who ’s that chap who paints such good running water — oh, Thurlow ! Next for the little realistic touches that the old fellows got into their pictures. What did they use? Guess I ’ll run up to the Museum and see. Then when I get those in it will be up to me to decide whether I want it spring or autumn, morning or evening — and that reminds me — moonlights are being done a lot lately! But I don’t have to worry about those things now because when I get that far along I can go down to the art store and get the opinion of the fellow down there on those matters.”

If you substitute furniture for trees, wall decorations for farmhouses, “objets d’art” for realistic touches, and the upholsterer or decorator for the fellow at the art store, you will have the frame of mind in which a great many people set out to create the environment in which the greater part of their lives are to be spent.

It is a common short-coming of the average homemaker to appreciate the fine points of an old chair, rug or bit of fabric, and, at the same time, to be totally unconscious of the fact that these objects may have no decorative value in the setting in which they are placed. Many prosperous homes are quite devoid of the decorative sense which is often displayed in the simplest corner of the peasant’s cottage.

During the evolution of certain forms and details of decoration, the sense of general proportion disappeared and the essential point of the entire decorative ideal — the ability to grasp the whole and to bring to it a fresh and unified conception — was abandoned somewhere on the way.

With the great development of the decorative resources of this country there has come new blood and new spirit into the movement. Artists and sincere decorators have begun to realize that the problem has been attacked from the wrong end and that an interior, instead of being a mere assemblage of individual objects, has at bottom the same elements and aims as other forms of artistic expression and must also be governed by the same laws.

Before an artist, if he is worthy to be called by the name, begins a picture, before he makes ready the materials, or is even endowed with a definite impulse to create, he has in mind, either consciously or unconsciously, certain fundamental rules of artistic composition. He knows, primarily, that a picture must express an idea; that it can express only one dominant idea; and that no matter how interesting or beautiful may be certain details which he sees in connection with it, unless they have some definite purpose in the composition, they not only do not add to, but detract from the effect of the whole; and that no matter how good the technical execution may be the picture will probably rise or fall by the sheer emotional quality of its color.

These same principles may be applied to interior decoration as Unity, Utility , and Color .

First and foremost it must be decided what you wish to attain, what you want your house to stand for! The first requisite of any decoration, whether it be expressed in furnishings, in marble or paint, must be an idea.

Do not attempt to decorate a home without a unified idea or intention — all the beautiful things you put into it otherwise will be of little avail.

In Japan a single decorative idea is behind the home of the poorest laborer and that of the aristocrat or connoisseur. It is to secure the best possible background for displaying the dignity and importance of the family’s collection of art treasures — the bright colored kakemonas, the fine prints, the carvings and porcelains, and for ike-bana , the art of the living flower. Everything in the house is conserved to that end. The walls are plain and neutral, the structural lines are straight and unobtrusive, and the low type of furniture is out of the line of vision. Although the materials may vary greatly in quality, the general effect is never without charm and distinction.

Certain schemes of house decoration are suited to certain people as certain styles of dresses are particularly becoming to them. A French writer has said, “The knowledge of being well dressed imparts a blissfulness to the soul which religion is powerless to bestow.” In a like manner the knowledge of being well housed, of having created for one’s self an environment which is an adequate expression of one’s tastes and individuality, of having established a harmony between the inner and the outer life, lends to living a certain poise and power which can seldom be derived from other sources.

A vague presentiment of the importance of personality as a basis for decoration has been felt among decorators for some time and is responsible, to a large degree, for the rise of the so-called “period house” or

“period room.” If people tended toward ostentation and luxury they were straightway installed in the gold and brocade surroundings of the Louis XIV epoch. If they manifested evidences of sterner ideals they were interpreted as Jacobean; while, if by any chance, they expressed an inclination for something unusual or out of the ordinary, they were consigned to a strange and fantastical style called Moorish or Byzantine.

Period decoration, like ready-made clothing, is a great saver of time and thought, but its propensity to misfits and monotony is preserved in like ratio.

In America where individualism is rampant, personalities widely varied, and the resources of the world practically at the command of even moderate purses, there should be a thousand and one decorative ideas to replace the single Japanese one — ideas which are not slavish copies of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, but original creations of the twentieth century, expressive of the fundamental qualities of the individual as well as the modern life and spirit.

Let us trace the idea evolution of the decorative idea from its origin in the building of the house which is to be decorated.

That actual circumstances can seldom, at best, do more than approach the ideal will soon be discovered when one finds one’s freedom of choice limited at every turn by the compromises which have to be made between one’s desires and one’s pocket-book. In consid-

WINDOW IN ST. BRIDGET’S CHURCH

Showing the return to the simpler and more subtly suggestive ideals in glass making By H. Wynd Young ering size, quality, and location, when you build your house, it is well to remember that a little careful planning can remedy a seeming deficiency in size; that paint is a happy medium for disguising deficiencies in finish; but that there is nothing, unless one has an all engrossing hobby, which can supply the deficiency of a pleasant neighborhood, or which can make up for the sacrifice of certain habits and comforts which have become part of your normal standard. The first essential of home-making is harmony, and unless it is first established outwardly with one’s surroundings, it is all the more difficult to attain it within. Sacrifice size, sacrifice finish, but do not sacrifice location! It is the one thing which ingenuity cannot alter, and it is important to consider it well.

After the plot has been selected, the next step will be the planning of the rooms in the imaginary structure. This may seem a most unnatural order of procedure — to build the house from the inside out! — but the first step in the new architecture, as it is in the new decoration, is to take the problem whatever it is, and plan it first logically and then beautifully — and strangely enough it will usually be found that the logical solution is at the same time the beautiful one.

The size of your family, its habits, its predilections must all be brought into consideration, and out of the inner shell of necessity, the outer contour and character develops. In proportions, choice of material and architectural details, this outer shell must then be adjusted to harmonize with the natural character of the land, the environs, exposure, and size of plot.

Such a structure, whether or not it seems to satisfy all the traditional requirements, has a sound basis for existence and is beyond the petty criticism of those who are in the habit of confusing good architecture with historic models.

The usual method of planning a house is far different. Some preconceived idea, either of architect or client, is generally settled upon, and the individuality and comfort of the family sacrificed to make the structure fit.

Beware of the architect who, before he has thoroughly thrashed out your problem, asks if you prefer Dutch Colonial, Spanish, or Georgian architecture.