MARCH 2007 » book review

Two Trendsetters

Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration
by Penny Sparke
Acanthus Press, New York, NY; 2005
374 pp.; hardcover; nearly 300 duotone illus.; $85
ISBN 0-926494-27-9

Jansen
by James Archer Abbott
Acanthus Press, New York, NY; 2006
324 pages; hardcover; more than 300 color and duotone illus.; $90
ISBN 0-926494-33-3

Reviewed by Nicole V. Gagné

Acanthus Press has released two captivating books as part of its "20th Century Decorators Series." Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration, by design historian Penny Sparke, is an insightful account of one of the most influential and respected decorators the United States has ever produced. Jansen, by museum curator James Archer Abbott, is a comprehensive history of the worldwide impact of the French interior-design firm Maison Jansen. Together, the two books provide a fascinating survey of the global influence of 18th-century French Classicism in interior decoration, which served as both a reaction to the high-style Victorian idiom and a gateway to international Modernism.

The New York City-born Ella Anderson de Wolfe (1865-1950) was a quintessential American go-getter who had herself presented to the court of Queen Victoria at age 19, despite her humble middle-class origin. A successful actress of the late-19th and early-20th centuries, de Wolfe left the stage to focus her energies on her talent for design. She quickly established herself as the premier American interior designer of her era; her decors gave her nouveau-riche clients – including author Henry Adams, actress Ethel Barrymore, composer John Philip Sousa, actor Gary Cooper and magazine publisher Condé Nast – their own chance, according to Sparke, "to climb the social ladder and proclaim their entry into the fashionable world." Sparke is also alert to describe how de Wolfe achieved success not only through the excellence of her work, but also from her persuasive championing of her ideals to the average person, through her efforts as an author of books (The House In Good Taste [1913], After All [1935]), magazine articles and even radio broadcasts.

De Wolfe's approach relied heavily on the principles outlined by Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman in their 1897 book The Decoration of Houses. Like them, she renounced Victorian excess in favor of European Neoclassicism, and promoted what Sparke calls "their belief in the principles of suitability, simplicity, and proportion." Unlike them, however, de Wolfe looked to a wider audience than the social elite of her day: "It is difficult to imagine Wharton promulgating her decorating ideas in popular ladies' magazines like The Delineator, Good Housekeeping and McCall's, but de Wolfe understood the importance of these mass-market publications to the average woman, who was not rich but who appreciated beautiful things and wanted a comfortable, appropriate home."

That emphasis on gender in design taste is one of the most fascinating aspects of this book. De Wolfe instinctively grasped what Sparke calls "a fundamentally modern belief in the intersection of the domestic interior with personal expression and individual identity." The feminist implications of this belief are profound, as the activities of women were then most often confined to maintaining their homes. Indeed, throughout her career, de Wolfe inevitably found herself dealing almost exclusively with the wives of her wealthy clients. Sparke justly praises de Wolfe's insight into "the special social and psychological needs of women to develop aesthetic relationships with the environments in which they lived. She recognized the important links between a woman's understanding of her own identity, of her body, her dress, and her domestic interiors. 'It is the personality of the mistress that the home expresses,' de Wolfe maintained. [...] It was her mission to create a world in which femininity was celebrated in the material environment of everyday life – likely as an antidote to the male-dominated world she inhabited."

The result was a series of pre-World War I interiors characterized by paneled walls painted gray, white and ivory; simple furnishings that intermingled antiques and reproductions; marble fireplaces; big mirrors; and an abundance of plain or flowered glazed chintz. The 1920s saw additional enthusiasm on de Wolfe's part for murals and animal skins (real or faux), while the late 1930s and early '40s incorporated Modern Regency stylings with dark-green walls and numerous objets d'art. All of these developments are carefully documented by Sparke, yet, sad to say, they aren't always well served by the book's illustrations. The great disappointment of this volume is its plethora of mediocre art. Many of its photographs are taken directly from de Wolfe's books or from magazines of the era, and the quality of these reprints almost never rises above barely adequate. Had Acanthus Press chosen to remove all the photos that are muddy, blurry, flat, texture-less and under- or over-exposed, this book would have been published as a monograph. Instead it's a heavy, oversized, high-priced volume with aspirations for the coffee table despite its dearth of good illustrations. For this reason, it is hard to believe that Sparke's Elsie de Wolfe will find much of an audience beyond interior decorators and design historians – a result that does a real disservice to its subject, whose lifelong effort was "to convince women of modest means that they also had the power to remodel their homes and, in so doing, embrace modernity."

Happily, the quality of art in James Archer Abbott's equally massive Jansen is far superior, and the book is a joy whether one merely browses its contents or gives it the thorough perusal Abbott's intelligent and authoritatively researched text deserves. Like Sparke, he organizes his study into a detailed introductory history followed by a series of in-depth examinations of numerous exemplary projects that span the full career of his subject. With Maison Jansen, that survey covers over a century, from the firm's founding by Jean-Henri Jansen in 1880 to its demise in the 1980s. Although Maison Jansen's design philosophy mirrored de Wolfe in its devotion to 18th-century French Classicism (and Jean-Henri was also as adept a self-promoter as Elsie), the firm aimed, from the very beginning, at a higher and more refined clientele – among its royal clients in the 1880s were William III of the Netherlands and Alfonso XII of Spain. After Gaston Schwartz and Stéphane Boudin became partners in the 1920s, "Jansen added the early-19th-century imperialistic design vocabulary created for Napoleon Bonaparte, a resurrection that appealed to modern 'emperors' (kings, shahs and presidents) who sought the firm's guidance throughout the 20th century," Abbott explains.

Upon becoming president after Jansen's death in 1928, Schwartz incorporated more contemporary design features – mirrored glass, molded crystal and low lacquer tables – into the firm's projects, while Boudin focused on traditional 18th-century paneling and furniture. But the reason Maison Jansen became what Abbott calls "the most famous and influential interior-decorating firm of the 20th century," is because of its range of services, which encompassed not just design but also the restoration and reproduction of antique furnishings. As Abbott notes, "The definition of antique during the early decades of the 20th century differed from the very specific meaning now accepted by decorators, art dealers, and collectors. Antique was as much a style for emulation, if not exact reproduction, as it was a qualifier of age. Jansen promoted an appreciation for the exquisite craftsmanship of the 18th century while developing the skills necessary to replicate period pieces." The ateliers of Maison Jansen employed hundreds of craftspersons at the firm's peak, who generated a steady flow of superb metalwork, woodwork, art objects and furniture – the last including such signature Jansen items as occasional tables in gilt bronze, which were topped with mirrors, and oblong dining tables that were mounted on castors and featured gunmetal legs with brass rings that mimicked bamboo.

Maison Jansen's rapid success resulted in a series of satellite offices worldwide; between 1905 and 1922, subsidiaries opened their doors in Buenos Aires, Havana, Cairo, Alexandria and London. A New York City gallery was launched in 1915, which expanded by 1934 into Jansen, Inc., combining a new gallery of antique furniture with a design studio and offices. Boudin succeeded Schwartz as Jansen's president in 1936 and went on to oversee all the firm's projects until his retirement in the early 1960s. He successfully strengthened Jansen's ties to society's elite until Europe plunged into World War II, after which, according to Abbott, "the great country houses of England and France disappeared, and decorative tastes entered a more democratic sphere."

Boudin sought to expand Jansen's postwar clientele by cultivating wealthy Americans, but he succeeded only in slowing the firm's decline, not reversing it, and, by the late 1950s Jansen's only remaining satellite offices were in New York and London. Boudin's last years with Jansen saw many of his greatest achievements, most notably his work on the Kennedy White House, his final project. But Boudin's successors moved steadily away from the period designs that had defined the firm, and by the 1970s Jansen focused mostly on modern design – "a much more competitive and unfamiliar field," as Abbott sadly comments. "[Jansen's] closing became inevitable when its overseers dismissed what it did best for the opportunity to compete in what others did better." The firm divested itself of its underused ateliers, was sold off in the early 1980s and finally closed its doors in 1989. But the legacy of Maison Jansen, as this beautiful book proudly demonstrates, has only grown in esteem and importance ever since. 

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