Designing the French Interior
The Modern Home and Mass Media
Published on 20. October 2016
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-0-85785-766-8 (ISBN)
Description
Designing the French Interior traces France's central role in the development of the modern domestic interior, from the pre-revolutionary period to the 1970s, and addresses the importance of various media, including drawings, prints, pattern books, illustrated magazines, department store catalogs, photographs, guidebooks, and films, in representing and promoting French interior design to a wider audience. Contributors to this original volume identify and historicize the singularity of the modern French domestic interior as a generator of reproducible images, a site for display of both highly crafted and mass-produced objects, and the direct result of widely-circulated imagery in its own right. This important volume enables an invaluable new understanding of the relationship between architecture, interior spaces, material cultures, mass media and modernity.
Reviews / Votes
Focusing on the French period from pre-revolutionary times through the late 20th century, 17 essays from 19 contributors are divided into three sections addressing the importance of various media and their shaping of residential interiors. It delves into the contributions of drawings, prints, pattern books, illustrated magazines, department catalogs, guidebooks, and films in promoting French interior design to the rest of the world. A reasonable number of black-and-white photos and reprints of posters, drawings, and publications enhance the written word, but should not be the only reason for picking acquiring this tome. The primary audience appears to be not only students and professionals, but also anyone who has sought information about the influences of French interiors on residential design. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. * CHOICE * Designing the French Interior is exactly the kind of book a history buff will love - be that buff a professional one, someone studying or just a casual hobbyist. If you have an interest in design, decorative arts, fine art, and the evolution and impact popular media can have on trends and movements, then you'll likely enjoy this read. * Outlet Magazine * This engaging text draws the reader into a unique account of the interdisciplinary nature of the modern French interior. Immersing the reader in topics such as the intricate histories of the French boudoir and transformations in public and private life the text traces the history of the modern French home. -- Rebecca Barnett Griffith University, Australia The scholars involved in this volume have located the study of the interior within the rich intellectual tradition that exists in the areas of French fine art, literature, film and cultural studies. In so doing it brings new approaches and ideas to the wider subject of the modern interior. -- Penny Sparke, Kingston University, UK This text offers a provocative examination of French interiors from the 18th to 20th century. The essays frequently decode primary French resources, making them accessible to a much wider audience. The use of mass media as a filter for analysis underscores the manner in which interiors were communicated, consumed, interpreted and valued. -- John Turpin, High Point University, USA This volume of essays, which presents the modern French interior as a space of intimacy, sexuality and identity, has an array of international scholars who are pushing boundaries in many new and innovative ways. Exploring France as a `fashion leader', they show importantly how the interior was displayed, mediated and staged. -- Jeremy Aynsley, University of Brighton, UKMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
52 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 169 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-85785-766-8 (9780857857668)
DOI
CBID182787
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Anca I. Lasc is Assistant Professor of history and theory of design at Pratt Institute, New York City, USA.
Georgina Downey is an independent scholar and Visiting Fellow in the Graduate Art History Program at the University of Adelaide, Australia.
Mark Taylor is Professor of architecture at The University of Newcastle, Australia.
Georgina Downey is an independent scholar and Visiting Fellow in the Graduate Art History Program at the University of Adelaide, Australia.
Mark Taylor is Professor of architecture at The University of Newcastle, Australia.
Content
French Connections: The Modern Interior and Mass Media, Anca I. Lasc, Georgina Downey and Mark Taylor
Section 1: Sex, Dreams, and Desires: The Perversions of the Modern Interior
1. Impolite Reading and Erotic Interiors in Eighteenth-Century France, Georgina Downey and Mark Taylor, University of Adelaide and University of Newcastle, Australia
2. Intimate Vibrations: Inventing the Dream Bedroom, Fae Brauer, University of East London, UK
3. Angels and Rebels: The Obsessions and Transgressions of the Modern Interior, Anca I. Lasc, Pratt Institute, USA
4. Machines and Monsters: The Modern Decadent Interior as Spectacle in Huysmans's A Rebours, Emilie Sitzia, Maastricht University, Netherlands
5. La Maison Suspendue: Imaginary Solutions for an Everyday Domestic Machine, Peter Olshavsky, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
Section 2: Aesthetics, Anxiety, and Identity: Reproducing a Decadent Domesticity
6. The Interiorization of Identity: Portrait Busts and the Politics of Selfhood in Pre- and Early Revolutionary France, Ronit Milano, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , Israel
7. A Portable Keyhole into the Fictional Apartment Building: The Interiors of Felix Vallotton and Emile Zola, Karen Stock, Winthrop University, USA
8. The Fin-de-siecle Poster: A Healthy Modern Stimulus in the French Interior, Katherine Brion, University of Michigan, USA
9. Mode of a Modern Muse: Fashion and Interior in Edouard Vuillard's Paintings of Misia Natanson, Jess Berry, Griffith University, Australia
10. The Decadent Interior as Modern Lesbian Aesthetic, Elizabeth Melanson, University of Delaware, USA
11. Mallet-Stevens, Modern Design and French Cinema, Nieves Fernandez Villalobos, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Section 3: Intimacy, Longing and Performance: The Consumption and Display of the Celebrity Home
12. Staging Domesticity in La Revue Illustree's Photo-Interviews: Belle Epoque Celebrity Homes in the Periodical Press, Elizabeth Emery, Montclair State University, USA
13. Hotel Baronne Salomon de Rothschild 1872-1878: The Imprint of a Legacy, Linda Stevenson and Susan Tate, University of Florida, USA
14. `Un Bel Atelier Moderne': The Montparnasse Artist at Home, Louise Campbell, Warwick University, UK
15. Housing the New Dandy: Designing Lifestyle in Monsieur Magazine, 1920-1924, John Potvin, Concordia University, Canada
16. `Fashions in Living': The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, 4, Route du Champs d'Entrainement, Paris, Peter McNeil, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
17. `Si ma cuisine m'etait comptee': Paris Match and the Salon des arts menagers during the Fourth Republic, Guillaume De Syon, Albright College, USA
Index
Section 1: Sex, Dreams, and Desires: The Perversions of the Modern Interior
1. Impolite Reading and Erotic Interiors in Eighteenth-Century France, Georgina Downey and Mark Taylor, University of Adelaide and University of Newcastle, Australia
2. Intimate Vibrations: Inventing the Dream Bedroom, Fae Brauer, University of East London, UK
3. Angels and Rebels: The Obsessions and Transgressions of the Modern Interior, Anca I. Lasc, Pratt Institute, USA
4. Machines and Monsters: The Modern Decadent Interior as Spectacle in Huysmans's A Rebours, Emilie Sitzia, Maastricht University, Netherlands
5. La Maison Suspendue: Imaginary Solutions for an Everyday Domestic Machine, Peter Olshavsky, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
Section 2: Aesthetics, Anxiety, and Identity: Reproducing a Decadent Domesticity
6. The Interiorization of Identity: Portrait Busts and the Politics of Selfhood in Pre- and Early Revolutionary France, Ronit Milano, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , Israel
7. A Portable Keyhole into the Fictional Apartment Building: The Interiors of Felix Vallotton and Emile Zola, Karen Stock, Winthrop University, USA
8. The Fin-de-siecle Poster: A Healthy Modern Stimulus in the French Interior, Katherine Brion, University of Michigan, USA
9. Mode of a Modern Muse: Fashion and Interior in Edouard Vuillard's Paintings of Misia Natanson, Jess Berry, Griffith University, Australia
10. The Decadent Interior as Modern Lesbian Aesthetic, Elizabeth Melanson, University of Delaware, USA
11. Mallet-Stevens, Modern Design and French Cinema, Nieves Fernandez Villalobos, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Section 3: Intimacy, Longing and Performance: The Consumption and Display of the Celebrity Home
12. Staging Domesticity in La Revue Illustree's Photo-Interviews: Belle Epoque Celebrity Homes in the Periodical Press, Elizabeth Emery, Montclair State University, USA
13. Hotel Baronne Salomon de Rothschild 1872-1878: The Imprint of a Legacy, Linda Stevenson and Susan Tate, University of Florida, USA
14. `Un Bel Atelier Moderne': The Montparnasse Artist at Home, Louise Campbell, Warwick University, UK
15. Housing the New Dandy: Designing Lifestyle in Monsieur Magazine, 1920-1924, John Potvin, Concordia University, Canada
16. `Fashions in Living': The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, 4, Route du Champs d'Entrainement, Paris, Peter McNeil, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
17. `Si ma cuisine m'etait comptee': Paris Match and the Salon des arts menagers during the Fourth Republic, Guillaume De Syon, Albright College, USA
Index