Roman fresco with banquet scene from the Casa dei Casti Amanti (IX 12, 6-8) in Pompeii

In western society we are inheritors of a legacy from Ancient Greece and Rome that despite the passing of over 2500 years is still potent. Through their ideas the desire to capture the essence of fine living was born. Today that art of living has evolved since the development of the domus in European antiquity to a residence in America and Australia, through a diverse and special mix of peoples and their cultures.

Ancient Greek gastronomy developed out of a practice of sacrificing domestic animals to a variety of gods. Afterwards, as one would expect in a democracy, the carcasses were equally proportioned and sold at market. During the fifth century before the Christ event herbs, spices and honey were added to heighten taste.

As documented in the literature of this period, cookery was considered a very important skill, because the Greeks understood it to be one of the basic arts that sustained human life. Romans of the first century embraced Greek ideas and art forms with great passion. Roman orator Cicero [106 BC -43 BC] believed that ‘to style the presence of guests at a dinner table’ lay at the heart of Roman civilised life ‘because it implied a community of enjoyment, a convivium, or ‘living together’.

Reconstruction of the Octagonal Room - Emperor Nero's Domus Aurea

Following the decline of the Republic and ascent of the Empirical system at Rome a shared meal became a vehicle for display, ostentation, rank, hierarchy and for flattering and influencing people, in a setting they could exercise the art of conversation. Roman Emperor Nero (37-68) enjoyed fine living with great gusto. When he entered his just completed residence, the Domus Aurea (or Golden House, built in 64 AD, he is said to have proclaimed, as he gazed upon its many splendours, words to the effect, ‘now at last I can live as a human being’.

Author of a first century best seller Satyricon, Gaius Petronius (27-66 A.D.), was Nero’s advisor in all matters of luxury and extravagance (his unofficial title was arbiter elegantia). He described guests arriving at a banquet as being requested to remove their shoes at the door, have their hands washed in iced water, no mean feat prior to refrigeration, while their toenails were trimmed to the sounds of a chorus singing. Perhaps today we may consider the last just a little excessive.

We do know that Nero’s guests reclined, along with their host, on couches enjoying conversation and cuisine prepared by chefs, who achieved some fame. His vast banqueting hall revolved in harmony with the rhythms of day and night, the ceiling opening to reveal the heavens as perfume and gifts showered onto guests.

The advent of Christianity created a challenge for those at the top because by now there was a well-established tradition of fine living throughout the Roman world.

The Apostle Paul struggled to attend gatherings where rich men and their friends were served different food and drink to those of a ‘lower status’. It was a dilemma he felt he could not resolve so in the end he decided the wealthy had better eat privately.

Paul advised the Corinthians [1 Corinthians 8: 9, 10] when asked should they eat meat sacrificed to idols by suggesting they should be careful about exercising freedom of choice in case it became a ‘stumbling block to the weak’. And, that if what he ate caused his brothers to fall into sin then for his part, he would never eat meat again. Powerful words with a meditative deep inner meaning that reflect Paul’s strength of mind and purpose.

There is a huge gap of reliable documentation from the fall of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, when the demise of eating in a reclining position also came about, until about the fourteenth century in Europe. Communal living by Christian monks and nuns meant communal eating, often to strict rules of silence, with an aim of feeding the soul.

Prolonged periods of peace also meant the aristocracy gentry and merchants could establish great houses in the countryside and along with it invented the concept of ‘eating outdoors’ or, having picnics, which became something new and exciting as described by fourteenth century French nobleman Gaston Phoebus Gaston III of Foix and Gaston X of Béarn (1343-1391).

He summarized his life’s achievements: “I have delighted all my days in three things. The one is arms, the next is love, and the other is hunting.” He added, “There have been far better masters of the two former than I am.” Such humility, is definitely to be applauded.

For Kings and noblemen of the fourteenth century hunting was so much more than just a sport. It was a game of chance in which the thrill of the chase was far more important than the desire to put food on the table.

An artful aristocratic diversion, the hunt ended with man proving he held power and sway over the animal kingdom. A complex event involving strategizing for success with highly valued, well trained dogs and fighting fit falcons hunts were often held on religious days.

They started with a feast for breakfast, as well as an analysis of the droppings of the potential prey to ensure it was both fit and worthy to be hunted at all. Then the hunt was on. The glorious day ended with everyone joining together in a celebratory meal and fittingly Phoebus himself died, as he should, during a bear hunt.

Fifteenth century Florentine author and philosopher Marsilio Ficino 1433 – 1499 revealed his thoughts about a meal that it ‘embraces all the parts of man, for it restores the limbs, renews the humours, revives the mind, refreshes the senses and sustains and sharpens reason’.

Throughout the fifteenth century in Italy dining at table was strongly symbolic of a good society one in which strong social relationships were forged, ideas exchanged and mutual respect established.

In England by the sixteenth century the head of a powerful household sat at the head of his table facing a fanciful portal crowned with trumpeters who heralded the exact moment the food, led by the marshal of the hall carrying a white staff appeared.

At the grandest banquets, a household officer on horseback emerged from underneath a screen that protected guests from draughts from the doorway and rode into the hall to announce that dinner was served. What fun.

At Hatfield House, home of the famous Cecil family, the ornately carved screen was crowned with the Cecil crest and family motto Sero Sed Serio “late, but in earnest’, surely one of the best mottos of all time.

Its painted decoration and a great panoply of decorative devices had been plundered from Turkish rugs and old Medieval manuscripts imposing a visual richness.

If a house during the Tudor period in England, included a Long Gallery hung with portraits of the family, famous patrons or friends it was the mark of a settled and civilized house; an Elizabethan magnate could contemplate their character or otherwise be inspired by their virtues. Owning such a house became important to practicing the art of fine living.

By the beginning of the seventeenth century the French court changed its philosophy from an ideal based on chivalry to one of refined manners.

The most influential teacher of architects in France during this period was Germain Boffrand. He revealed ‘the character of the master of a house…can be judged by the manner in which it is arranged, decorated and furnished’.

By now the art of fine living embraced a well-planned sophisticated garden as well. At Vaux le Vicomte Louis La Vau 1612-70 [architecture] Charles Le Brun 1619-90 [interiors] and Andre Le Notre 1613-1700 [gardens] spent five years building a chateau designed by the three for the glory of one, their patron and illustrious client the Minister for Finances, Nicolas Foucquet. It is at his Chateau, Vaux le Vicomte, that the French classical style was born.

Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Notre created this extraordinary ‘palace of the sun’ as described by the ancient Latin poet, Ovid for his patron, Apollo, The Sun King.

Here at last was the perfect place for a man of substance and his family to dwell; large, imposing, but not huge; with painted wood panelling, colourful carpets, painted illusionary ceilings, carved and gilded furniture, fabulous ceramics, superb textiles all made for the most splendid of man-made environments.  I know that when I visited to view its splendours I could have easily moved straight in. It was not over ambitious, but comfortable, cleverly disposed and in keeping with its times.

At Vaux le Vicomte Foucquet practiced the art of fine living well, eating his meat from a service that included a new fancy fangled invention called the fork, without fearing the accusation of depravity still associated with that practice only a few years earlier.

The publisher Charles de Sercy described Vaux’s gardens in 1652 as the place where ‘Foucquet made art and nature engage in a pleasant contest’. The genius of Le Notre lay not only in his invention of a new style, but in his absolute mastery of a repertoire widely used, at least in its many parts.

It was bringing them together in a controlled harmonious form that was not only pleasing but also a perfect place in which to practice the art of seduction.

Vaux was built for the enjoyment of the countryside while not giving up the pleasures of the city…something England did not emulate at this time as they concentrated on building country houses for sport and display, rather than as a place to practice the art of conversation.

The Baroque style from Vaux le Vicomte became a potent force that influenced the whole of the western world when guided by Louis XIV, he began expanding his father’s hunting lodge nearby the village of Versailles using the combined talents of Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Notre.

The Kings of France lived in the chateau of Versailles, which became a centre for political life from 1682 until 1789. It is today an amazing place to visit with its some 2,300 rooms and over 60 staircases. In its day it cost the equivalent price of what we would pay now for a modern city airport. It was an object of universal admiration in its time, enhancing French prestige on the world stage.

France’s appearance and way of life changed forever during the reign of Louis XIV the Sun King. Many great towns throughout France underwent metamorphosis and the landscape altered forever as Louis XIV devoted himself energetically to all his building projects. Today little remains of his other splendid palaces at Saint-Germain and Marly?

Well cursed as an extravagance when it was under construction, and accused of having ruined the nation at the time of the revolution, the chateau at Versailles stands today as a monument to French achievement and the many milestones reached in its historical and cultural journey.

Over the years since it was finished the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles has reflected many great moments in the history of the world. At the time Colbert, Louis’ 1^st Minister and master of ceremonies used it to launch the Royal Mirror Company. Its success gave considerable momentum to the glazing industry in France and increasingly the public became aware of the decor possibilities of a mirror. They enhanced the art of living well.

Despite all of the work Louis was to complete at Versailles it was always called le Chateau, (which means Gentleman’s seat) never le Palais, remaining the home of a young man, grand without being pompous, full of light, air and cheerfulness just like a large country house.

According to the Oxford Dictionary the term enlightenment means to be free of prejudice, ignorance or superstition. Grand Tourists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe were busy discovering the ruins at Rome and an expansion of knowledge revealed that ancient artists and writers had been accustomed to free expression, with religion and honour paramount to society’s daily existence.

This revelation affected the social and moral values of many European societies who were travelling in ever increasing circles in ‘search of the truth’. They began striving for aesthetic perfection wanting to emulate a new ideal; classical perfection.

As a result small temples in a landscape became focal points for those wanting a place of ease and repose.

By the turn of the nineteenth interiors as described by Jane Austen in her novels, presented an image of a sublime world. China, glassware and silverware displayed the family coat of arms proving to those who sat at table with you that your lineage was not only important, but also could be traced to ancient (the inference was more important) times.

Simple white starched linens with drawn thread work were surmounted by elegant vases made of glass, filled with fresh flowers picked from the garden loosely, but consciously arranged and placed on great tables. These were made from the new rage timber, mahogany with their elegantly fluted legs inspired by the columns from a Greek classical temple.

Women’s dresses emulated Greek statuary although some, endeavouring to appear like the goddesses on Greek temples by wetting their dresses, succumbed to pneumonia… because by now death was preferable to not being seen as part of a fashionable scene involved in the art of fine living.

William Morris (1834-1896) self-professed leader of the modern movement said ‘If I were asked to say what is at once the most important product of Art, and the thing most to be longed for, I should answer, a beautiful House’.

Building a house in the country made to appear as old and as venerable as the countryside itself, was what everyone was striving for. If you couldn’t build one you clamoured to be acquainted with those who owned a wonderful old pile. The aim was to affect an invitation to join a country house weekend where the art of pleasure was a very serious business and the art of fine living practiced with confidence and style.

‘Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality’ said English author and art critic John Ruskin 1819 – 1900. He resented social injustice and the squalor that was a direct result of the ‘greed is good’ mentality that accompanied the unbridled capitalism of the Industrial Revolution. His influence on the next generation of artists and craftsmen who led the way toward establishing Le Style Moderne was to be profound.

The agricultural depression of the late nineteenth century removed land as the chief source of wealth in England and by 1901 the money to pay for a country house had to be made in urban centres of trade or, somewhere else in the Empire, like Australia, where the English style and way of life had been transported. World War 1 marked a great divide in the age of the moderns bringing artists face to face with an alternative; either a clean sweep or hope of a reformed society, or alternatively the retention of a privileged art in the service of an elite and moneyed class.

After WWII a focus on art and design coming together again was rejuvenated. At Sydney, the unofficial capital of Australia, a quiet revolution in the art of living well has meant that its interior designers have finally come into their own. Stunning textiles instead of paintings are appearing on the very best walls. Smart eye-catching antique carpets are teaming brilliantly with wide plank nailed timber floors.

Despite the GFC, storm and tempest, floods and fire most owners remain optimistic. Good old Petronius, with his eye for detail and best in life, would have loved the whole concept of a one stop shop and having access to a fabulous design resource like Residence Australia.

During the last decade those who have set the scene for an art of fine living have reinterpreted late nineteenth century European Modernism with great enthusiasm, making it appear all brand new.

Great interiors today are innovative, convenient, comfortable, aesthetically pleasing, technology savvy and above all energy efficient. Sustainability, recycling and quiet elegance have become hallmarks of an interior that will both inspire and nurture its occupants, so that they can enjoy an art of living well.

Carolyn McDowall, ©The Culture Concept Circle 2011, 2012

*Quote by Aristotle (384 – 322 BC)

Related posts:

1. Antique & Art Dealers Association Show at Sydney in Spring
2. EVOLUTION OF ART, DESIGN & STYLE
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3. The Culture Concept Circle – You Tube Channel

Gustave Klimt, leading artist of the Vienna Secession - Judith 1901 Oil on Canvas

The industrial revolution of the nineteenth century as it progressed rapidly changed the face of the western world. By the beginning of the twentieth century in Europe, England and America immense wealth generated a youthful society, one who had very different priorities and objectives than their parents or grandparents. They were clamouring for the best that life could offer. Their aspirations and expectations were different, their views less dogmatic, manners much smoother, prose lighter and morals and codes of conduct easier. At the time England was indisputably the greatest and richest nation in the world with no rivals seriously threatening its trade and industry. The upper and middle classes were enjoying supremacy.

Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality author and art critic John Ruskin 1819 – 1900 declared. A moral guide or prophet, if you like during the latter years of the nineteenth century in England Ruskin resented social injustice and the squalor that was a direct result of the ‘greed is good’ mentality that accompanied the unbridled capitalism brought about by the Industrial Revolution. His influence was profound on his both his contemporary colleagues and the next generation of artists and craftsmen. They would lead the way towards establishing Le Style Moderne.

Window from Hill House by Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Vienna’s art world in the latter years of the nineteenth century, finally accepted the leadership role of the United Kingdom. in the world of innovation and design. Arts and Crafts leader William Morris and Scottish creative Charles Rennie Mackintosh fought to combat goods produced by machines by championing hand manufacturing. Charles Rennie Mackintosh cultivated a rigorous formal economy of design, which appealed to members of the newly established Viennese Secession.

They were a group of primarily young artists, painters, sculptors and architects in Vienna who seceded from the prestigious Kunsterhaus (Artists House) to set up a Society of Austrian Artists – the Vienna Secession. in I897. It included painted and illustrator Gustav Klimt. His brilliant individualism would dominate the era and his paintings set a stylistic tone that would resonate in far off places. His paintings lining the grand ascending staircase of Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum reveal his movement towardthe hallmarks of a style that would become known as Art Nouveau.

The Secession staged their first exhibition in March 1898. Their aims were purely aesthetic and founded in Coffeehouse culture and the decorative arts magazine The Studio, which was devoured in all the capital’s stylish cafes.

Detail of the Secession building in Vienna, constructed by Joseph Maria Olbrich. It is one of the best known examples of Secessionist style of modern architecture.

Members of the Secession Otto Wagner, Josef Hoffman and Josef Maria Olbrich were so impressed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s austere aesthetic they invited him to come to Vienna and exhibit at the eighth Vienna Secession exhibition, which he did to critical acclaim.  Secession artists by their very nature were all fierce individuals striving to create a new style, one that would inform and help to imagine the future.

Vienna was struggling to leave behind its reputation for conservatism and the impact of the repressive political climate of their immediate past. Its citizens eagerly sought to embrace contemporary ideas and change under the influence and leadership of its artists, intellectuals and scientists.

Josef Hoffman in 1905-11 designed the Palais Stoclet in Brussels for Belgian industrialist Alfred Stoclet. It was a Villa built for a private financier who ‘wanted a large house, he loved the arts and gave us an entirely free hand’ said Hoffman.

It has been described as a universal, complete, flawless masterpiece of a thousand years of architectural history.

Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffman combine to produce the design and style of the Palais Stoclet's Dining Room

Modernism demanded a distinction between interior architecture and decoration and a preference for open planned living.

Modernist interiors were meant to be devoid of applied decoration. They seek to concentrate solely on geometry, uninterrupted lines and form.

At the Villa Stoclet the Dining Room contained murals by Gustav Klimt and furniture by Josef Hoffman. Harmony governed every facet of this total work of art and it became the extreme statement of Viennese avant-garde design.

It was ambitious, an accomplished achievement of the Wiener Werkstatte, (Vienna Workshops) founded by Hoffman in 1903. A strange astonishing edifice it might have come from another planet, it was in fact transposed far from the city of its conception to a setting, which is still alien to it. It exemplified in embryo the major features of the coming Art Deco movement of which it was one of the great founding monuments.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century rivals America, Germany and Japan threatened Britain’s manufacturing power. At home industrial unrest, growing feminist and socialist movements were part of a general, and protracted crisis. The population of the United Kingdom was 41.5 million in 1901, twenty percent living in poverty. Emmelline Pankhurst founded the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903 and it gained an international focus for militant action in the campaign for women’s suffrage. In Britain the Children’s Act of 1904 finally banned employment of children between nine at night and six in the morning.

A most profound influence in the UK and in America would be that of the long established system of French education in design and architecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts at Paris. Its style of education was introduced into Britain amid scepticism, resentment and open hostility early in the twentieth century. Rejected previously, the Ecole’s approach to architecture laid heavy emphasis on distinct, formalized planning.

This is a school of design education founded that had no parallel in any other European country. It aimed at being and became a centre for intellectual debate about architecture during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Its teaching program was conceived as a preparation for the design of public buildings.

Tutors taught architects to work up their designs through a series of project stages. They employed the classical orders in the required ‘correct proportions’, but only once the plan was fully developed. The aim of every student was to win the prestigious Grand Prix de Rome established by Napoleon through the Academie des Beaux Arts, so they could spend a year studying in that city.

In England the Ritz Hotel on Picadilly is in the ‘Beaux Arts’ style. In America, the Biltmore Estate (pictured) was designed by the first American educated at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at Paris, Richard Morris Hunt. His ‘French Chateau’ style house for George Washington Vanderbilt II, ate up much of the family fortune, installing such new innovations as electricity, which at the time was not even in the area.

The population of Britain in 1800 was 10 million. In 1881 it was 31 million and by 1911 there would be 11 million more to house, and the resultant prosperity was enjoyed most of all by the affluent middle classes. Within the years from 1895 to 1906 more buildings were built than ever before in Britain’s history. Speculative developers, who employed both run of the mill, designed houses, hotels, offices and factories and talented architects in an attempt to invent a new sought after British style. They were the ones who held sway.

Idealists such as William Morris in the latter part of the nineteenth century had championed good design for the poor and had been overwhelmed by the fact it was only those of affluence who could afford to buy what he had to offer. Would that he was in Inala at Brisbane in 2002, to see part of his vision achieved in the revamping of 50′s housing commission bungalows.

The King Edward VII Galleries at the British Museum are the most elegant of all the Beaux Arts influenced Edwardian classical buildings at London. They won a knighthood for their architect Webb J.J. Burnet. While great public buildings were passing through the decade of the High Baroque the Neo Georgian style in architecture was also being revived heavily in the suburbs.

This was a decade where the expansionist and imperialist features of the previous century were displayed to excess, one in which the political tensions and economic frailties of the present century before World War I became apparent. Radical change was required.

Spanish draughtsman, painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was a dominating figure of early twentieth century French art. He, with French painter Georges Braque (1882-1963) founded classical Cubism. Braque working with Picasso from 1908 to 1914 to explore cubism thorough its various phases. When their association ended Picasso designed costume and sets for Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes. He was above all an innovator.

His portrait of Olga avoided illusionist realism, which he achieved by flattening the figure against its background. Picasso’s first wife Olga Stepanovna Khokhlova was a Ukrainian-Russian dancer.

She is one of the many women who shed their restricting corsets, cut their hair, raised their hemlines and set out to find what feminine freedom and being modern was all about following World War I.

World War One marked the great divide in the age of the moderns. The upheaval of war brought artists face to face with an alternative, either a clean sweep or hope of a reformed society, or alternatively the retention of a privileged art in the service of an elite and moneyed class. The streamlined success of the style Art Deco would be one answer, at least until World War Two, which would change the face of the world forever.

At London in the year of the second Olympic Games held in England the Victoria & Albert Museum, undoubtedly the world’s greatest museum of art and design, is hosting an important exhibition that encompasses the period between the first ‘austerity’ games held in London in 1948 and the games of the all new austerity age in 2012.

Innovation in the Modern Age (31st March – 12th August 2012) will explore British design in the interim and the tension in England between tradition and modernity, conservatism and contemporary design and the economic, political and cultural forces that have shaped its evolution.

Vienna also has many plans for 2012, namely to inspire its guests from all over the world with harmonious diversity.

They have announced 2012 is their Gustav Klimt year and there are two exhibitions of his works opening in February.

Klimt´s key paintings will set the stylistic tone for his world-famous work from about 1900 onwards. They are at the center of a show “Gustav Klimt at the Kunsthistorisches Museum“.

“Klimt: Up Close and Personal. Images, Letters, Insights” at the Leopold Museum will focus on the artist´s numerous travels as well as the the fact that he incorporated his impressions and observations during his travels into his paintings.

The styles that made up the Modern Movement are known as:
Arts and Crafts 1875-1915
Art Nouveau (1880-1910)
Wiener Werkstatte (1903-1933) and Bauhaus (1919-1933)
Art Deco (1920-1940)

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

NB: The dates are but a guide as all styles, as they rise and fall, overlap each other.

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Interior details in a Workers Cottage- for me an interior should invite you to come in. The huge delft style plate on the wall was very large and very rare

Today there are many publications people can look to if they are planning inspired and original interior decoration. And, with a dash of savoir-faire you can push the boundaries of design and composition in many different ways and employ all types of styles. Fabrics like Toiles de Jouy; French printed cottons are once again coming back into vogue. When they were first the rage in 1770 Jean Francois Bimont wrote that they ‘serve to make furnishings of taste convenient and pleasant to the eye’. Such a lovely phrase.

When I went into business for myself as a practicing interior designer in the 80′s in Australia, it was the culmination of a dream that began as a child. At Authentic Decor what was available to purchase on the Australian market was significant in being able to render interiors that were both comfortable and convenient. The world was expanding, the dollar doing well against other currencies, and Europe and England a mecca for making cost effective purchases.

Long will I remember the time that I was in London and Europe when an Australian dollar = an English pound. It enabled me to purchase, some very special pieces including a lovely small antique Edwardian lounge, to be used to great effect in a bay window of a Paddington terrace I was renovating at the time. Then there was a handsome pair of late Regency early Victorian Chesterfields with a serpentine shaped front. They were found in an old barn at Tring, a small market town in Hertfordshire. The dealer was John Bly, one of the original presenters of the Antiques Roadshow. Covered in a heavy black faille, which is a finely ribbed woven fabric made from cotton and silk or manufactured fibres, they were shipped to Australia for the same price as an equivalent quality modern lounge suite would cost here at the time. Another purchase was a fine antique tea table of satinwood from Martyn Cook Antiques, which was superb in both its colour and patina aa was a superb gilded French clock. All such lovely things.

A great wall of knowledge is always inspiring, especially as here in a renovated worker's cottage interior. The superb woven contemporary textile has a delightful design of musical instruments together with flora.

Attention to detail, quality and imagination are good starting points if you are passionate about where you live and work and want your space to reflect who you are, and what you are on about. My interiors must be design convenient and aesthetically enriching. How to plan a living environment has certainly been integral to my life’s journey. Books are an important aspect of any room that I personally work or live in. Without them my life’s journey would have been very different indeed. There is nothing more inspiring than a great wall of knowledge, especially when it is combined with wonderful textiles chosen for their varying tactile and graphic qualities.

I particularly love unexpected colour combinations and beautifully woven fabrics. Weavers during the Middle Ages, early Renaissance in Italy and seventeenth century France and England imbued their work skilfully with crispness and abundant detail. Tapestries particularly have a wonderful depth of tone, richness of colour and exquisite gradations of tint and as such can add richness to a room whether its architectural style is traditional or contemporary.

Detail of corner of a client's living room

As my mother liked to recollect in later years, re-arranging the Federation flat our family lived in during my childhood was about trying to create more space and give everything and everybody living in it a little boost. This happened often during my teenage years. It was always about the shapes, the atmosphere and how the main living area could be changed dramatically by arranging different layouts with the existing furniture and furnishings. Change for the family was as good as a holiday.

Resources were always limited as there was seven children with twenty years between first and last and all brought up on one salary, at least until I was in my teens. When I commenced working for a building firm during the early sixties at Sydney the architect/estimator became a very special mentor and teacher. The firm sent me to complete a diploma in interior decoration, the only qualification possible at the time because in 1962 university courses were still a way off.

Three  years of on the job practical experience helped me to put my best foot forward, increasing my colour sense and technical knowledge. The firm was renovating a great many turn of the twentieth century grand old houses on the eastern suburbs waterfront at the time and visits to job sites were daily occurrences, a practice I kept up throughout my own working life.

Superb textiles...for a caring client

They were fabulous architectural spaces, which were all receiving a much need face lift and having bathrooms and ‘family rooms’ added, to bring them up to date with overseas trends. At the time my role included typing up the specifications for the fit out and helping with the costings. I was the personal assistant to the architect, who estimated the cost of jobs right down to the nails and battens used in every wall in every room. He took each room apart bit by bit to ensure that he didn’t forget to cost anything.

The firm prided themselves on never charging clients for one extra thing once the job had been quoted. This was invaluable experience for me in later years when renovating houses for my own family, and others. The budget was the budget, accurate and complete. And, we did not start until it was complete. A 15% contingency was always a must, to allow for unforeseen calamities. When the firm could return that to the client unused, well we knew we were doing our job properly.

Gaining a wide-ranging group of experiences by working with, and coordinating many different trades on the job, was of enormous help. Having two brothers-in-law in the industry was also an advantage. One was a plasterer and the other worked for one of the biggest textile distributor firms in Australia. Learning about different types of cement render and how long they needed to cure was valuable information, especially as I was on job sites on a daily basis with the architect/estimator. He also helped to grow my knowledge about how each trade needed to be managed, to save both time and costs.

When I did take on my first professional client, during the initial consultation a huge saving made to the layout was only possible because of the invaluable experience gained by working with the trades for over ten years on many different types of development sites. Once I started taking on projects of my own, working on renovations for an investment consortium meant happy times.

Most of these were period blocks of flats in and around the eastern suburbs beach area where I grew up. We would tidy them up, fix missing architectural details (lost picture rails and the like) and upgrade the facilities (kitchens and bathrooms) then paint and sell them on. In the 70′s it was possible to make good profits doing this, and the results were always pleasing for all involved.

Layering different types of textiles, such as faille and damask worked well in a Paddington terrace at Sydney during the early 90's. The chimney board reflects my love of books and was commissioned from John Quirk, a gifted trompe le'oil artist. The clock is antique French, early nineteenth century purchased through Martyn Cook Antiques, as was the glorious satinwood tea table and neoclassical silver teapot on its original stand. The lounge in the Bay is a restored Edwardian piece and there was a pair of Chesterfields, handsomely buttoned and covered in black faille

Space saving was always high on my agenda, having lived in a flat for my whole life. Creating a lot out of nothing was another skill, developed through years of helping my mother find ways of scrimping and saving to purchase a few yards of material to brighten our flat.

Just love a flat, which is very different to an apartment in that it has a back door, just like a house. So it was easy for my brother and I to fantasize as kids that we lived in one. The back door usually led to a fire escape, or if you were on the ground floor as we were, to a service yard of some description. Today renovated heritage flats are high on many people’s lists because of their high ceilings, architectural detail and those lovely back doors.

Attending a brush up course for old decorators in the late eighties at London’s Inchbald School of Design was illuminating, as so many new technologies were upgrading their standards. Massive changes in types of lighting and allowances for computers in the home were now important. The history of design, which I was teaching at home in Australia was also an invaluable tool to aid designers working on buildings based on heritage styles.

The Inchbald School of Design in the 21st century has become one of the most influential interior design schools in the world. Being taught by, then meeting and dining with legendary designer founding Director Michael Inchbald at his home was a rare treat. He had long been high on one of my most admired designers.

Summer interior with an 'impressionist' style chintz covering a pair of lounges. They had spare covers to add in winter, that provided a richer, warmer look to a room that was well lived in

He had worked on the Houses of Parliament and QEII when she was launched, so was an expert at space saving, which always was, and has remained, a special interest of mine.

At his charming home in London a tiny octagonal library with books to the ceiling had been fashioned from an old laundry, cupboard and toilet being re-located. He used mirrors very cleverly too, with great subtlety and charm. Reflections that went off into infinity. The dinner there with some of the teachers from the Inchbald, and a few of his friends. was one of the special experiences of my life.

It has always been important for me to attain a fine balance between traditional and contemporary design, especially when clients request that service. However many clients insisted on attaching secrecy clauses to the contracts, so showcasing any of those I was working on was often difficult. They did however enjoy the fact that I didn’t sweep in and want to clear everything away and start again.

In the interests of the environment, dispersing quality pieces or objects goes against my grain, especially if they can be recycled to another purpose. When buying furniture and the other necessary accoutrement’s of life, flexibility of use is important.

Having a personal passion for antiques and art led to my gaining further qualifications in the decorative arts and design history, which added another dimension to my interior design and lecturing experiences.

Working within the antiques industry as a dealer added yet another layer of information and expertise.

Detail Chinese lacquer screen

A one year course in the archaeology of ancient Greece and Rome at Sydney University was an indulgence I treasured. This came about because I had always loved the whole idea of going on a dig from extensive reading in childhood. I was also on a committee for years raising funds for the university treasure, The Nicholson Museum. This is where I met a friend who encouraged and supported my later efforts to found an academy teaching, among other things the history of design in architecture, interiors and gardens and how to design and complete interiors.

When we were adding furnishings to any house for a client I used to love hunting about for, and finding old ‘case’ furniture that would serve as a wardrobe in one house, a container for cups and saucers in another, or clothes in yet another. It was a friend who called me a second hand rose, a lovely term of endearment. This was because, apart from towels and fitted bottom sheets for the bed (what a wonderful invention they were) nearly everything else I ever purchased for my home during my adult life was second-hand.

Choosing quality, so it that could be sold if not required any more or when times were tough, was always a goal. That mindset comes from living through and experiencing first hand the rationing to riches phase following World War II. A lovely example is a folding screen.

Now screens are generally not something used by designers or decorators much in Australian interiors. In my lifetime I have owned two, one an early nineteenth century antique Chinese screen beautifully decorated on both sides with quite fine enameled work which is now sold. The other was a dusky old English Victorian model with painted decoration. Interestingly, this was the one other people around me always coveted the most and the one I love and have kept close, despite it weighing a ton. They didn’t skimp on wood in those days.

To my mind its simple really, nothing too flash about it and it didn’t cost more than a hundred dollars at the time. Painted with a black background it has five leaves, hinged to go both ways. It is evident to me however that someone poured their heart and soul into rendering the painted flowers upon it, all of which were popular plants in gardens at the time.

The flowers are beautifully rendered by hand and scattered and strewn delightfully across the top third of its surface. They provide an air of gentleness and relaxed harmony to any room, whether modern or traditional.

In the time I have owned this screen it has been a room divider, disposed in a corner to hide storage boxes, used as a dressing room screen and at present, with two leaves folded back, it has become a delightful bed head. For me it is one of the special ‘things’ I hope that I will enjoy until the end of my days.

Just love the way experienced architects, prior to World War II endeavoured to have main rooms facing north east in Australia, to catch the breezes, to minimize the sun in summer and to maximize it in winter.

The Turret Apartment, St Martin's House Brisbane

When I lived in ‘The Turret’ of St  Martin’s House at Brisbane, nearby St John’s Cathedral, the apartment faced north east and had casement windows. It was a truly delightful place to be, full of light and fresh breezes and in the five and a half years I lived there I never needed to use a heater once in winter. The afternoon sun was just low enough in the sky to penetrate the main living areas and warm up the thick walls so that it was warm all night.

A corner of my office...the framed textile is an antique sleeve from a nineteenth century Chinese robe and the books, well they are the essence of any interior I live or work in, as is that tapestry

Planning living spaces should be about enhancing the joy of life. As it should, the architecture of any space will dictate some of the terms when deciding how to complete your interior. It is always good to remember to be bold and to take risks. Large pieces of furniture can work well in small spaces as do rows of bookcases. Many people would shy away from using a large tapestry in a small space. Not me, I just love covering a whole wall with one, as I have in my current daily working environment.

There are no boundaries and no rules really when it comes to designing interiors, only guidelines that should always remain both flexible and practical. And, if it is for yourself, then its decoration must come from the heart.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle January 2012

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During the seventeenth century at France King Louis XIV ordered architect Louis le Vau and gardener Andre le Notre to produce a tiny pleasure pavilion in the grounds of Versailles near the artificial lake. Built to practice the arts of seduction, the so-called Trianon de Porcelaine was lavishly embellished with ceramics in the Chinese taste. It was pulled down when Louis’s mistress Mme de Montespan fell from favour. In its place the Grand Trianon was built for the King to entertain family and friends.

By the eighteenth century in Europe and England all things Chinese had assumed incredible proportions. Fashionable society sought to transmit their ideas about the magical land of Cathay through a multiplicity of imagery. It manifested itself in intimate interiors, where mirrored rooms reflected scenes of frivolity well. It draped itself delightfully with sumptuous silk textiles that recorded scenes of fashion and folly. The admiration of all things Chinese also led to the ultimate cross over of cultural influences. Fans were among the earliest imports of the English and Dutch East India Companies and perfectly reflected the femininity associated with this movement, which combined flirtation with fantasy and frivolity.

On the scale of things a very few people in England or Europe had ever seen someone who was Chinese, so their vivid imagination took over. When combined with a great layering of charm, Chinoiserie was a design style that was very fetching. It was the European evocation of the Chinese. Our divine teapot is from from the Saxon porcelain factory Meissen, who invented European porcelain. Their Chinoiserie designs were all at once fun, fantastical and frivolous, yet quite sophisticated and enchantingly pretty.

Chinoiserie had a complete lack of pomposity and used clear bright colours, which had both amusing and fantastic qualities and displayed a preference for asymmetrical design. This aspect offered everyone a rest from the formality and relentless perfection demanded by the classical legacy of ancient Greece and Rome. It was about having fun.

In a little Salon in the Chateau de Craon the scenes painted delicately on the interior walls and ceiling in a delightful circular chamber were typical of the work of the French designer Jean Baptiste Pillement (1728-1808). Many of his designs were used on the newly popular small-scale feminine furniture and placed the emphasis on Chinoiserie as a style of luxury and refinement.

A beautiful Prussian blue vernis martin writing desk with Chinoiserie decoration was made for King Louis XV’s mistress Madame de Pompadour’s for her Chateau at Bellevue. The artist she patronized Francis Boucher delighted in rendering designs for her, including a painting of the sophisticated pleasures of the beau monde who are disported in a park as members of a pleasure seeking Parisian society.

Chippendale Frame on Painted Mirror on Chinese Wallpaper at Saltram

In England Thomas Chippendale and John Linnell both master craftsmen, were inspired by Chinese symbolism and motifs in the development of styles of chairs.

Chippendale’s mirrors in the Chinese taste were also highly sought after, their delightful whimsical decoration was delicate and had great charm.

Fabrics were imported from the East, satins and embroideries from India; painted silks from China were treated like wallpaper and lined an alcove. They were costly, but popular with those who could afford them.

Toile de Jouy

Less expensive was Toile de Jouy a cotton fabric produced in France and decorated with engraved copperplates of little vignette Chinoiserie scenes. Shops were filled with all sorts of delights for men and women of fashion to choose from as the style was taken up all over Europe.

In the Green Salon at Drottingholm and in the Oranienbaum, the summer palace of the Czars of Russia Chinoiserie reigned supreme. Catherine the Great remodelled an enfilade of rooms so that her guests could stroll through a sequence of Chinoiserie interiors.

A love of things oriental fitted into both the French and English garden genres at this time. There is a Chinese Tent preserved at Boughton House, which is a unique example of a collapsible garden pavilion made of oilskin, produced in London in the mid eighteenth century. It was also used in the garden of the London house of the Montague Douglas Scott family and can be seen in that place in a painting by Venetian artist Canaletto entitled View of the Thames.

Surprise was the key to the success of Chinoiserie pavilions and follies. On your journey your pulse would quicken as you came across some delightful building in which, unlike the house you lived in that had to conform to a conventional life style and its demands, you could allow your imagination to run free and create a total fantasy. The love affair with the exotic orient with its tales of a Forbidden City and exotic splendour provided a focus for tales of the fantastic. In an ancient Chinese Garden one of the most important characteristics to observe was the laying out of paths in curves and counter curves with circular moon gates.

Rare example of Chinese enamelling on a Royal Worcester white blank plate by Chinese artist Po Hing, courtesy Martyn Cook Antiques, Redfern Sydney

The Chinese House at Harristown in County Kildare in Ireland was built before 1738 for the garden at Stowe in Buckinghamshire. It is one of the earliest such pavilions in Great Britain. It was taken away in 1751 to Wooton House nearby until the 1950’s when it was taken across the Irish Sea to County Kildare.

Chinese enameling on porcelain eventually became so desirable in 1870 the Royal Worcester factory brought to Britain a Chinese enameller called Po Hing to England so that he could complete an especially commissioned dinner service for them. Po Hing was Cantonese and painted the tableware in his native style.

Now and then a plate from this service turns up on the international antique market. They are a reminder of time when the east was still a mystery to many and confirmed the idea that it was not only exotic but also difficult to access.

Unlike other styles that deteriorated to be replaced by another, Chinoiserie has never really left us. The western fascination for the east and its abiding images has endured although it continues to change to suit fashionable trends and politically correct poses.

These days it is more about a focus on food and the merriment enjoyed as it is shared in a mingling of the various traditions of a peaceful western multicultural society.

Plant hunter Robert Fortune recorded in his 1847 publication Wanderings in China ‘but the curtain, which had been drawn around the celestial country for ages, has now been rent asunder; and instead of viewing an enchanted fairyland, we find, after all, that China is just like other countries…’

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2011 – 2012

I went to dine
With a friend of mine
Who dined off porcelain plates
Of a kind so rare
That it stirred your hair
To think of their possible fates

For some were Ming
and others were Ch’ing
(Whatever those names may be)
And the food was divine
And the wine, the wine
Intoxicated me.

There were ices – those
Were of famille rose,
and coffee of famille noire,
and a choice dessert
of famille verte
Preceded a choice cigar.

But alas for the end
Of dinner and friend
For he happened his eyes to raise
As I started to rub
The burning stub
On a bit of his finest glaze.

He was perfectly nice,
But as cold as ice,
As he rang for my coat and hat,
For Ming is a thing,
And so is Ch’ing,
That mustn’t be used for that.

This delightful poem signed S.D.C. was found on a scrap of paper in a book on second hand glass….

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The Emperor Qianlong in his study (Before 1767) Artist: attributed to the Jesuit Priest Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) and Jin Tingbiao (active at Court 1757-1767)

Many know about Salem in Massachusetts in America, mainly because of its association with witches. However one of its greatest treasures is the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM). The roots of the museum date to 1799 and the founding of the East India Marine Society, an organization of Salem captains and supercargoes, who had achieved what once was impossible, sailing beyond either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. The society’s charter included a provision for the establishment of a “cabinet of natural and artificial curiosities,” which is what we today would call a museum.

Recently the PEM had a show that revealed the contents of the Emperor’s Qianlong’s private retreat deep within the Forbidden City. There were some ninety objects, including murals, paintings, wall coverings, furniture, architectural elements, jades and cloisonné.  The Emperor Qianlong  (r.1736-1796) was one of Chinese history’s most influential figures. He was among the richest and most powerful men in the world during his life time. A connoisseur, scholar and devout Buddhist, within the forbidden city Qianlong created a luxurious garden compound to serve throughout his retirement as a secluded place of contemplation, repose and entertainment.

I first learned about the PEM in an unlikely place, Brisbane, Australia during the last year of the twentieth century. At Milton in Brisbane, where I was working at the time in an Antique Shop, we held an exhibition of Chinese textiles and many people came not only to look and purchase rare pieces, but also to show us theirs. One family turned up with a sea chest full of fabulous textiles and objects, which had been brought out of China early in the twentieth century at the time of the Chinese Revolution by a merchant sailor member of their family. It included a fabulous uncut Chinese silk Imperial Yellow Robe, which was still on the roll where it had been placed after it had been woven.

Chinese Rank Badge of a Scholar

An elderly friend, Jim Forbes came to visit and advise. Jim was a member of the renowned American Forbes family, whose wealth had its origins in the China trade that took place between North America and China during the nineteenth century. He had an innate understanding of the culture that surrounded the Emperors in the Forbidden City. Throughout the exhibition he often called in to view and talk about the textiles and the time they had been woven.

He told us about the Boston trading firm Perkins & Company who had sent many young men, including his great grandfather to participate in their business activities abroad. Perkins & Co., like many other Boston trading firms in the early nineteenth century, had sent ships to China to obtain tea. They paid for it by exporting to China, from Boston, large quantities of silver, furs, manufactured goods, cloth, wood and the deadly opium along with any other items they thought the Chinese market would absorb.

The Forbes family founded and were involved in the running of the Museum of the American China Trade at Milton, Mass., on Boston’s South Shore. Until the 1980′s it was curated by a Forbes great-grandson, Dr. H. A. Crosby Forbes, who was an expert on Chinese porcelain and a relative of our Brisbane based expert.

He often went to visit him to discuss special finds and view the family collection. It was housed in one of the family members 1833 Greek Revival style house in ironically, Milton in Mass. In 1984 it merged with the The Peabody Essex Museum leaving the house in the management of the Forbes House Charitable Trust, which now operates it as the Captain Forbes House Museum.

The Forbes House Museum is located at: 215 Adams Street Milton, MA 02186

The PEM is about helping people to access and assess their relationship to creativity, or to help refine their ability to interpret art and culture.

The collection is diverse and cross cultural and includes African, American, Asian, maritime, Native American and Oceanic art. The focus is on enjoying a lively conversation through creativity across time, place and culture.

Their goal is not to hang art on the walls and then tell you what to think. Deep and far ranging, the collection is meant to open windows onto the world and other cultures to learn how people live, work and celebrate.

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM),
East India Square (161 Essex St Milton) Salem, Massachusetts
Contact: 01970 978-745-9500

Carolyn McDowall The Culture Concept Circle 2010 – 2012

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One of the enchanting figures on the Chinoiserie Style Pavilion in Sansouci Park at Potsdam. Johnn Gottfried Büring was the architect and it was built between 1755 and 1764 by Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (1712-1786)

What is Art Deco
Art Deco (1920 – 1940) is a design style that reached the apex of its popularity between two global conflicts, World War I and II. It borrowed from virtually all the design styles of the past in order to fashion the future. It was the perfect expression of Paris during the 20’s to the 30’s and embraced every area of design and the decorative arts including architecture, interiors, furniture, jewellery, painting and graphics, bookbinding, costume, glass and ceramics. It was all about glamour. It was also about completing a deeply felt need for a style that would never be threatened by change. Its protagonists wanted to ward off the threat of a civilization dominated by either industry or technology, or both. The idea was to integrate contemporary living with art and turn life into art and for a while they succeeded.

Chinoiserie, More than Fantasy and Fashion
During the eighteenth century in Europe and England all things Chinese had assumed incredible proportions as fashionable society sought to transmit their ideas about the magical land of Cathay through a multiplicity of imagery. It manifested itself in intimate interiors where mirrored rooms reflected scenes of frivolity well. It draped itself delightfully with sumptuous silk textiles that recorded scenes of fashion and folly. The admiration of all things Chinese also led to the ultimate crossing over of cultural influences. On the scale of things a very few people in England and Europe had ever seen someone who was Chinese so their vivid imagination took over and, when combined with a great layering of charm, Chinoiserie was a style that was very fetching.

Jane Austen, more than the cultivation of the mind?
While her only known image may seem to reveal otherwise, there was nothing really plain about Jane Austen 1775 – 1817. Her novels, which have become classics in their own right, allow us today to share the memory of the robust society in which she lived and its privileges of rank. It was a colourful, turbulent and seemingly romantic world in the process of rapid evolution. The English provincial life, as led by Jane Austen and some of her heroines, was one of quality and modesty. A cultivated ambiance of politeness, with a keen though delicate sensibility was well balanced by common sense.

If you would like to watch more videos just bookmark our link http://www.youtube.com/user/carolynmcdowall

Carolyn McDowall, Writer in Residence, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

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New Zealand designer, David Trubridge's Float Bed Designed for Dreaming

Since ancient times men and women have had a very real need for sleep, love and dreams. Over the centuries the bed gradually became the most important piece of furniture in the house, and a very real symbol of rank, wealth and power through its association with fertility. The idea of ‘ making a bed ‘ evolved from the early Saxon tradition of filling sacks with hay, and it is a term we have used ever since.

The whole idea of occupying a single chamber to sleep in became a reality during the so-called middle ages, a period in history that spans from the fifth, to the end of the fifteenth century. It was a luxury enjoyed only by a privileged few. The main ‘ chamber’ was about receiving guests, conducting business, as well as a hundred and one other activities, which included sleeping in a set up similar to our modern idea for ‘open plan living’. People traveling in regions previously frequented by outlaws and marauding tribes sought shelter in great castles where sleep became a communal affair – the sharing of rooms, or beds, recognized as a mark of political esteem or as a symbol of arms laid to rest.

Detail late nineteenth century wool embroidery on a linen bed curtain

By the sixteenth century producing an heir to carry on the family name, increase its wealth and uphold its traditions was of increasing importance, as was the obligation for offering hospitality. During this time the bed gained a great deal in importance and as privacy became an issue long curtains, suspended from hooks on the ceiling,  protected occupants from the gaze of others or servants who bedded down on straw pallets nearby.

Curtains aided warmth and repelled horrendous draughts in vast stone former strongholds struggling to become noble dwellings, rather than just bastions of defence. Textiles were an expensive commodity and bed curtains a ‘luxury item’ and very prestigious.  If fabric covered the whole bed it was a symbol of absolute nobility and wealth. Early bed hangings were often made of wool, embroidered with flame or crewel stitch with heavy tapestries also popular. Canopies evolved, attached to the ceiling, enabling curtains to be suspended underneath. During the day they were tied up or ‘bagged’ out of the way.

Infamous Great Bed of Ware, now restored

During the sixteenth century Diane de Poitiers the famous mistress of Henry II of France associated herself with Diana, the Roman goddess of women and childbirth. The crescent moon was her symbol, intertwined with the initials of her famous lover, decorated the wooden paneling on her bedchamber’s walls. Diane, like all well educated women of her time, knew to heighten her desirability by contrasting the whiteness of her skin against the black satin sheets on which she lay.

Next to Diane de Poitiers bed was the symbol for her lover, King Henri II in the panelling.

Sixteenth century beds had four posts to support a wooden canopy with a headboard and footboard, elaborately carved, our ancestors lavishing great funds on this piece of furniture that nurtured life from conception to birth through life and finally, death.

Many a sixteenth and seventeenth century man embarked on a ‘business trip’ leaving his wife behind, to enjoy the spectacular orgies held in the Great Bed of Ware. Originally housed in the White Hart Inn in Ware, England it could accommodate some 15 people including on the pull out beds hidden underneath the great bed.

A high degree of comfort and convenience would become a priority in grander homes during the seventeenth century and the bedchamber was often used to receive guests. Some bedchambers gained a close stool ensuite and mirrors, with glass now being able to made in larger pieces, were becoming an essential requirement for any lady of style.

From the beginning of the Renaissance to the French Revolution the bedchamber and the bed flourished along with the fortunes of Central Europe.

Seventeenth century Dutch Bedchamber, note the interior close stool in its own recess with a door - very avante garde

In the seventeenth century Louis XIV, The Sun King led the way. From 1701 his bedchamber occupied the exact centre of the chateau as he was the Sun King, and around him everything revolved. He devised ceremonies and elaborate rituals to keep his nobles at court, out of mischief and well entertained, so they could not plot against him. In his bedchamber he held his famous state rising and retiring ceremonies.

The bed was designed to stand out from the centre of the wall, which became known as the aristocratic position. It was placed behind a balustrade where the King could only be attended by men of noble blood. The elaborate hangings were changed from winter to summer and it was here you presented petitions and ask for jobs or favours.  The crowd approached the great man hopefully via the official path progressing along the axis of honour (the enfilade), which could take days to achieve.

More than often, those he really wanted to talk to intimately were quietly brought up the backstairs into the privacy of his closet, a small room off the bedchamber, where favours were generally secured. At Versailles a gilded carving above Louis’ bed represented “France watching over the King in his slumber” and in 1715 he, who had made the bedchamber ‘the sanctuary of royalty’, finally died”.

The great tradition of State Beds in England was established late in the seventeenth century when Charles II returned from an exile spent at the courts of France and Holland. The bedchamber gained additional furniture with chairs and stools upholstered ensuite, a mirror, table and stand, often in walnut, marquetry or lacquer.

Looks like a lover has fled the seventeenth century bedchamber after a confrontation with a husband?

The Melville Bed designed by Daniel Marot, upholstered by Francis Lapiere London 1700 Oak, pine. The bed was an extraordinary commission, made in 1700 for George, 1st Earl of Melville for the Apartment of State at his new Palace. V & A Museum, London

The Melville Bed is one of the most spectacular exhibits at the V & A Museum at London.

Designed by French Huguenot Daniel Marot, the son of a distinguished French architect and engraver it still retains its original luxury hangings of crimson Genoa velvet, backed by ivory Chinese silk damask linings embroidered with crimson silk trimmings

Marot had left for Holland a year before Louis XIV revoked the continually controversial Edict of Nantes. He had worked in the French royal drawing office in his youth and because he was in Holland when the Edict of Nantes was revoked he was exiled from his homeland and so could not return.

He settled, entering the service of William of Orange in 1686 and becoming his Master of Works responsible for the decoration of the Palace at Het Loo, bringing his knowledge of Parisian design and decoration in the most advanced form. He went to England with William and Mary when they accepted the invitation to rule jointly on the throne of England after James II had fled the country in 1688. At first beds were brought over from France, but within a short time Marot had appointed upholders and manufacturers to fulfill his design commissions.

Marot’s genius lay in his ability to view a complete interior and demonstrate how unity of design could be applied to the decoration of a room as a whole, and he was one of the first designers to do so. His work in England was to have  a profound effect on the history of interior design.

The Canopy at Hardwick Hall, note the Oak Tree to the right and left of the coat of arms. It signifies the strength and endurance of the indomnitable, Bess of Hardwick

Beautiful English needlework used for hangings were masterpieces of the upholsterer’s art, as at the first English Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole’s house, Houghton Hall and at Hardwick Hall the embroideries on the canopy of the State Bed were among the finest in the country.

Bess of Hardwick outlasted four husbands, becoming wealthier on each occasion. Her bed hangings were embroidered with all manner of flora and fauna, including the oak tree, a symbol of her own personal fortitude and strength.

Now bed bugs are not usually associated with the Age of Elegance, however, they plagued Europe for centuries. In the seventeenth century authorities suggested linen overalls should be worn over the clothes in bed and undergarments made lice proof by lining them with taffeta!

Samuel Pepys, the English diarist recorded ‘ he had found a bed, good but lousy’, which sounds rather odd, and poor Lord Herbert lamented ‘he saw hundreds of bugs on their march home, full of prey’, as he had been bitten ‘on a very tender part, which I shall forbear mentioning and which we Brittons think the best part of the bullock to make steak of’.

During the eighteenth century seasoned travelers on their Grand Tour of Europe sent their servants ahead to attend to such matters. Bed pests did not have any respect for rank. Bug men abounded, and a certain Mr. Tiffin secured precedence over all others through his advertisement in Bell’s Weekly Messenger of 1814

May the Destroyers of Peace
Be Destroyed by Us
Tiffin and Son
Bug-Destroyers to her Majesty

An eighteenth century French bedchamber from a detailed painted picture on porcelain

‘I mostly find the bugs in the bedsteads’, he said, ‘but if left unmolested, they get numerous and climb to the tops of the rooms, they’re very high minded and prefer lofty places’.

The formal layout of houses with the main bedchamber at the end of a succession for rooms was breaking down by the middle of the eighteenth century. The increasing desire for families to seek privacy away from the public gaze, the introduction of a room for dining in, were factors in altering the structure of how houses were laid out.

In France by the mid eighteenth century a luxurious bedchamber featured superb parquetry flooring and gilded mirrors whose candles were disposed on the frames to refract the light.

The Bed had gained silk hangings with the addition of ‘tie backs’ as well as huge pillows and bolsters for comfort.

The bed would also feature a counterpane (bedspread) . Young mothers received their friends following the birth of a child and they brought the traditional French gift of cone paper packages filled with delicious, delicate confectionary (dragées).

Scottish architect Robert Adam completed his Grand Tour and introduced his neoclassical taste into England on his return in 1758, setting up shop in London. The neoclassical movement has been likened to a new Renaissance particularly in terms of house layout and decoration. Instead of living life on one level important reception rooms moved down to the ground floor with bedchambers remaining on the first level. His predecessors would not have understood the term ‘going up to bed’.

Bedchamber Nostell Priory with original furniture by Thomas Chippendale

Cabinet Bed designed by Scottish Architect Robert Adam made by Thomas Chippendale for Actor David Garri

Adam and Yorkshire cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale were an eighteenth century phenomenon. They worked in many houses together and the bedchambers were embellished with beautiful Chinese wallpapers, festoons, garlands of flowers and classical motifs, with furniture and furnishings becoming lighter and more elegant.

The bedchamber at Nostell Priory originally decorated by Adam and furnished with polished or painted timber and upholstered furniture by Chippendale has had its original hangings replaced.

Nostell Priory in Norfolk is home to one of the largest and most diverse collections of furniture by Thomas Chippendale in the world, all of which was made especially for the house.  A floor of bedchambers not ever seen before have, in 2009, been handed over to the trust for viewing from 2010.

Adam also designed a piece of furniture that looks like a bookcase, but originally was made to contain a bed, which folded up inside.  Attributed to Chippendale’s workshop it was later converted into a wardrobe. A folding bed allowed a bedroom to be used as an extra living room during the day.

This bed is part of a group of furniture preserved because it belonged to the celebrated actor David Garrick (1717-1779). It was made for the guest bedroom at his country villa at Hampton, Middlesex.

Josephine's Bedroom at château de Malmaison

The room also contained armchairs, a sofa, a dressing-table and a wardrobe, all painted blue and white to match with blue silk upholstery and curtains. Contemporary Americans admired furniture designed by Chippendale and Neoclassical architect Robert Adam’s designs as well as the French idea of changing hangings from winter to summer and they were all taken up with great alacrity becoming part of an ongoing tradition.

Early in the nineteenth century, during the reign of Napoleon as Emperor of France, the severity of the Empire style was softened by the use of exquisite silks, sheer and opaque fabrics.

Empress Josephine had official architects Charles Percier and Pierre Leonard Fontaine design a magnificent bedchamber in her country house at Malmaison, after she had been put aside by Napoleon so he could marry again in order to gain an heir.

Her bedchamber was a triumph. The bed was raised on a dais for maximum effect, an eagle atop the canopy.

The walls hung with drapery, tent style, with slender gilded columns holding up the richly embossed ceiling painted with clouds and using Napoleons’ preferred colours – Scarlet red, for blood perhaps? and Gold, undoubtedly for Glory!

Bedchamber of Juliette Recamier

The Empire style of Napoleon and Josephine was enormously influenced in its early stages by a beautiful young woman who moved in elite circles Madame Juliette Recamier (1777 – 1849).

Contemporary descriptions tell us, ‘walked like a goddess on the clouds and her voice thrilled the senses’. She dressed in a cloud of diaphanous white mousseline, never wore diamonds only pearls, and appealed to romantic sensibility, wearing crowns of real pansies and cornflowers on her head and posies on her gown. Juliette was married at 15 to the wealthy banker Jacques Recamier.

In 1798 he bought a house for her on the rue deu Mont-Blanc, which he employed the architect Berthaut to furnish in the Greek Style.

Juliette insisted on having flowers everywhere, even on the stairs, and would greet invited guests with a charming smile and invite them to see her famous bedroom.

The bed itself was raised on a dais, and declared the most beautiful in Paris, against its background of mirrored walls, draped as it was in a froth of transparent gauze, a white vapor falling from the ceiling, surrounded by vases and candelabra, and an artificial rose tree.

Her bathroom was described as ‘rich and choice’, the bath itself hidden under a red stuffed top when not in use.

After 1830 in Europe cities became overcrowded with little or no suitable restraints on birth control. Coupled with advances in medical practice survival for large families was ensured and elaborate beds once again stood in the main chamber being used for a whole range of family activities

Early Oak Bed in Kelmscott Manor designed and worked by May Morris, daughter of William Morris, Morris & Co Embroiderers. The Bedcover was embroidered by Jane Morris, William Morris's wife

In Victorian England increasing industrial wealth meant country houses expanded.

William Morris La Belle Iseult 1851

Self-contained bedchambers accommodated guests at weekend parties with clever hostesses arranging their occupation to suit the games played ‘ after dark’.

Walter Scott’s tales of Knights of the Round Table had every late nineteenth century woman panting at the thought of Sir Galahad arriving on his white charger to carry her off!

Love was considered superior to sex, conducted on a higher plane involving much talk of the ‘passion of the soul’.

Arts and Crafts Designer William Morris, leader of the Arts and Crafts movement, depicted his wife Janey Burden, as Le Belle Iseaut in 1858 in her bedchamber, her bed in disarray, its bed hangings ‘ bagged’ as in the middle ages.

Janey became, like all the other women of her age, guardian angels of the hearth and upholders of the sacred values of the Victorian home. Her husband William’s ideal of womanhood exemplified the treasured image shared by most men for that of a medieval damozel at work upon the hangings for her castle bedchamber.

Mae West

The aesthetic movement towards the end of the nineteenth century in Europe and England preached beautiful surroundings, promoted spiritual and mental health.

The rose motif and white paint became popular with followers of Scottish designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who was a very influential designer during this period, especially in Germany and Austria.

It also became fashionable for the modern women to assert themselves and become involved directly in the decoration of their homes; a display of taste as important as dressing well and looking beautiful.

In America following World War One Hollywood movie stars became guardians of our morals. They were required to keep one foot firmly on the floor during scenes taking place in what was now known as the bedroom.

Popular star Mae West, fearful of the damaging effects of sunlight and fresh air on her beauty, kept her blinds permanently drawn, the air conditioner humming and those lucky enough to come up to see her sometime discovered that her mirrored’ boudoir revealed all!

Contemporary Zen Bedroom courtesy Robertsons Furniture

The bedchamber or bedroom today is a comfortable and familiar friend, one in which the most significant thresholds of our experiences are crossed, enveloping us in its warmth and security.

It provides a place in which we are free to consider the consequences of our days while we progressively plan for the happiness of all our tomorrows.

‘ and so to Bed, pray, wish us all good rest!
Sleep tight, oh, and don’t let the bed bugs bite!’

Carolyn McDowall The Culture Concept Circle 2010, 2011

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Among the cargoes brought into the port of Marseilles in Provence during the mid seventeenth century by the Compagnie des Indes Orientales were desirable cotton prints from India.  They consisted of dazzling patterns and striking colours, which captured the imagination. Quickly they gained an enviable reputation for being colourfast, which made them appear almost miraculous. The colours included red from madder (garance plant) and blue (indigo plant) and they became generically known as ‘indiennes’ because of their origin. These light, vibrant prints became enormously popular and quite the Vogue at Paris and at the court of Louis XIV. Aristocrats and artists turned them into all manner of fashionable apparel.

Famous playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622 – 1673) known as Moliere, starred as the foolish hero in a production of his play for the King Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme in 1670 at the court of Versailles dressed in the popular prints worn upside down. It was a great lark. The result of this craze at court seriously jeopardized the growing silk and wool textile industries of France and it became so serious that in 1686 King Louis XIV through his Arts & Industry Minister Louvois, was forced to ban the import of the much sought after cottons from India. Banning the product only further fueled the fire of demand and smuggling became the order of the day.

It was much the same over in England where the instant popularity of cottons from India, called chintz resulted in a depression and even riots in the silk and linen weaving trades.

All was blamed on Queen Mary (1650 – 1702) who had a perchance for colourful printed fabrics.  The trade was damaging English manufactory and so the English Parliament passed an act in 1720 to restrain and prohibit the use of them as well. (It forbade ‘the Use and Warings in Apparel of imported chintz, and also its use or Wear in or about any Bed, Chair, Cushion or other Household furniture‘.)

The passion for these fabrics caused local manufacturers to take notice and the first recorded manufacture of copies using carved wooden blocks to print from in France was at Marseilles in 1656.

Some of the Grand Seigneurs and Grandes Dames at court decided that they should grab an opportunity to fund production of an all new local product. However the quality was not nearly as good as the imported.

In the eighteenth century the ever expanding markets for trade in textiles from both the Middle and Far East contributed greatly to the success of many western economies during the eighteenth century.

The invention in 1733 of the ‘flying shuttle’, the ‘spinning Jenny’ in 1765 and the chain loom in 1768 made their presence felt. Industrial weaving and spinning centers improved greatly at this time, and mechanization led to a fall in prices and expansion of English and French textiles onto the world market.’

France had to remain competitive.

The late eighteenth and up until the mid nineteenth century, was the golden age for Provencal fabric design and manufacture.

Antoine de Beaulieu a young employee of the Compagnie des Indes finally committed industrial espionage to discover that metallic salts, called mordants were the key to the process. They combined with the dyes to form an insoluble compound on natural fibres.

From 1758 Mme de Pompadour, the powerful mistress of Louis XV campaigned for a free trade in these materials. By the second half of the eighteenth century, France’s production was at last becoming competitive and Louis lifted the ban in 1759.

Because the cotton fabric was so light it brought about a revolution in European clothing. Its washability made it also very suitable for bed hangings, bed curtains and bedspreads.

By 1785 at Tarascon one company dominated the area with its production of superbly printed cottons. Working from a library of print designs, from dainty to dramatic, with fruits, florals, paisleys and geometrics

The traditions associated with the company we know as Souleiado was started in the 18th century by Monsieur Jourdan.

He produced large scarves for ladies (mouchoirs) in three varieties. They were brightly coloured scarves for girls and young woman, grisailles, in muted greys for women  “of a certain age”, with deuils, or sombre toned squares for old women and widows.

The fabric’s manufacture had three elements. The base cloth, which was high quality cotton of over 150 threads per square inch.

The graceful block based prints were a mélange of naiveté and sophistication. And their colours reflected the flora of the regions in France in which they were manufactured.

Under Louis XVI (1754-1793) and again following the Revolution, the most popular of the prints were produced on a bronze coloured base. This was then covered with flowers, vines and herbs.

Together with the other fabrics – lawns and batistes the cotton fabrics used in the new French Empire period were meant to project an image of a taste for harmonious simplicity and new ideals of democracy.

Napoleon, Josephine and her ladies in the garden at Malmaison by Jean Louis Victor Viger du Vigneau

In the early nineteenth century designs became more stylized and during the reign of Napoleon 1, petite designs came into vogue. Enchanted he bought baskets full for Josephine and the ladies of the court. At this time the fabrics preferred were geometric, and many today still have a surprising contemporary look.

In 1818 one of the Avignon craftsmen printers, Leonard Quinche formed a partnership with two men from Tarascon to build a mill at St. Etienne du Gre near Tarascon. This mill was 140 years later to become known as Les Olivades.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, the arrival and acceleration of the Industrial Revolution in Europe and England provoked massive change, and the cotton industry suffered a further decline.

This resulted in a lot of small producers selling out or joining larger companies. Great collections of the precious carved wooden print blocks were burned as detritus of another age. Only in areas such as lower Provence did a few companies manage to survive.

Following World War II these lovely prints started to once again re-appear internationally. The designs were transferred from the few remaining old carved blocks onto copper plates, complete with imperfections – a charming touch.

Traditions established so long ago with the indiennes still continue today in a blending of time honoured techniques and modern manufacturing methods. Provencal fabrics remain distinct and harmonious, conveying  a warm welcoming feeling.

Today chemical dyes replace the original vegetable dyes, but the colourful pastiche of shades and pattern really work well when mixed together with other fabrics, particularly en masse, and they combine brilliantly in all decors. Their rich earthy colours look particularly attractive when combined with the dark patina of antique wood in a colourful house in Provence. In its interior there is little effort to make everything ‘match’ or even maintain a continuity of periods.

What is to be admired is that the French mix what they like with what they need and with what the family has handed down with a sense of great style in a look that is both eclectic and cohesive.

Tres chic!

Carolyn McDowall ©The Culture Concept Circle 2011

*Vincent Van Gogh

Related posts:

1. French Country Style – Provence and joi de vivre
2. French Country Style – Provence is c’est magnifique!
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View of Arles with Irises in foreground by Vincent Van Gogh

You could not ever accuse the French of being afraid of colour. In Provence you discover that it is a perfect expression of their love of nature, because it is from nature the colours of Provence evolve.

The painter Vincent Van Gogh took a room at the Hôtel-Restaurant Carrel in February 1888.  He made several painting excursions around the village of Arles producing images of the harvest, the wheat fields and other rural landmarks of the area. Van Gogh moved to Arles when he was ill and his works from this period of his life are richly draped in yellow, ultramarine and mauve. His portrayals of the landscape surrounding Arles are of fields and avenues and they excel in their intensity of colour.

The Yellow House at Arles by Vincent Van Gogh

Like Monet in Normandy, the light in Arles excited Van Gogh. However it was very different from the paler silvery iridescent sky that Monet knew.

At Arles from the Yellow House he rented, Van Gogh found the countryside of Provence full of vibrant light and his appreciation for its beauty is seen in the range and scope of the work he rendered while he was there.

Provencal interiors are always warm and welcoming reflecting the needs, desires and the spirit and style of the individuals of Provence in a particular time and in a particular place.

The early houses of the countryside in Provence were built of stone. They originally housed stock on the ground floor to protect them from the harsher elements, while the family dwelt above. Dormer windows set into the roof led to a loft, where fodder and food was stored so it kept fresh and clean. This enabled the family and the stock to survive the harshest of winters.

After a time the occupants found that the fodder acted effectively as insulation helping to keep the family warm below. And we thought insultation was a modern invention.

All the houses in Provence from pre Roman times until the twentieth century were constructed from local materials. These were sometimes in character with their neighbors, but always in harmony with the land. Wooden louvred shutters were kept closed in the sunny hours and only opened in the evening to let in the fresh, cool night air. A ubiquitous pair of French doors, led into a courtyard where a grape vine covered the trellis providing both fruit and shade.

Roofs were usually made of terra cotta tiles hand moulded and produced from local clays. The colours of the earth give the rooftops of its villages a rich mosaic look, full of texture and life.

Interiors all over Provence vary but usually all have the following features -

Staircases: these were simple affairs fashioned out of stone and terracotta tiles and in the last few hundred years had the added feature of a wrought iron handrail.

Hand Hewn Beams: Wood was always expensive and in short supply, because it was needed for the beams. These were hand made massive and sturdy, providing rustic charm while supporting the floors above.

Floors: Mainly tiled, the most popular being terracotta because local clay was always in abundance. Easy to maintain the floors were left natural or glazed and they came in all shapes and sizes. Being of the earth and nature they had the advantage of remaining cool in summer and retaining the heat in winter.

Fireplaces: As in all the regions of country France these were for hundreds and hundreds of years, at the heart of the home. They were used as the cooking centre and main source of heat. They symbolized security and well being, and often contained storage niches for condiments and pots.

An enormous fireplace in a farmhouse would have beehive shaped openings into which casseroles could be set with coals from the fireplace and cook slowly all day while the farmer, his family and workers tended the fields.

Ceramics: From the eighteenth century brightly coloured ceramic tiles adorned kitchen counters, bathrooms, walls and tables. The first Faience production house in Provence was founded at the town of Moustiers in 1679 by Pierre Clerissy, a faiencier.

Moustiers is an ancient village that clings to the cliffs in Northern Provence and it is one of the greatest centres historically. Clerissy was descended from an ancient Provencal family, who had been potting from the middle ages using hand throwing or hand modeling techniques and following artistic traditions.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries pottery produced in Provence was mostly blue and white, inspired by oriental porcelains coming in through the port of Marseilles.

It was during the eighteenth century that polychrome glazes were introduced revolutionising production. The abundant supply of clay in the region, which when covered with a white glaze, gave the faience a characteristic vibrant glow

Copper pots and pans: As in Normandy, they were an essential part of any Provencal kitchen.

Doorways: A special feature was a beaded curtain treatment for doorways, allowing air and some light in while keeping flies out. And here in Australia we thought this was an ‘Aussie invention’ – we just made it from whatever was to hand, including plastic strips, corks and bottle tops.

Petrin, or dough bin

Furniture: This evolved from the thirteenth century into a refined and distinctive style. The timbers used first were pine, then walnut, which dominated from the fifteenth century. With a warmth to its lovely patina, walnut responded well to the chisel and awl. Even though walnut trees were plentiful during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they were highly prized, and often given as part of a bride’s dowry.

Other fruitwoods included olivewood and pearwood, which was often darkened to replicate ebony. There are also cherry, chestnut and mulberry, with willow for the chairs. The English loved French walnut, but its supply was often disrupted by European wars, and they had to look to other markets for supply. English eighteenth century furniture made from French walnut is highly prized and very expensive.

Designs were filled with sensuous movement by way of exquisite carving evoking a play of light and shade, with expressive lines and soft angles and as always the function or purpose for which it was designed was the main factor.

A panetiere (or breadbox) above a Petrin or dough bin with its urn and fruit basket motifs, were a traditional paring.

Together with the Tamisadou they were an integral part of any country household. The Tamisadou was an unusual piece of furniture like a two door cabinet, created to refine and sift flour. Today originals are quite rare to find and unique to Provence

Chairs, were simply designed with rush seats and came in different designs suitable for different purposes. Some had high backs and low seats, some were especially designed for wet nurses or nursing mothers while others were amply proportioned intended for grandmothers.

They were also made into banquettes holding three or four people, designed for chatting, traditionally placed near the fireplace, and sometimes decorated with hand painted flowers, and cushions of the colourful Indienne cottons (Provence 3).

Tables were rustic, solid, and functional,  mostly rectangular with drawers or pull out slides, for feeding about twelve people in comfort, if not in style. Smaller utilitarian tables for writing, gaming, sewing, halls or night tables were essential this one with a central X support and stretchers reminiscent of the Louis XIV style

During the nineteenth century richer households commissioned canopy beds (lits a l’imperiale) with silk curtains suspended from a dome attached to the wall Mostly, beds in Provence were simple affairs bedrooms not ever having been a major design focus.

As in other regions of France the Amoire was a splendid piece of furniture, one of a families most cherished possessions,, whether in a humble or wealthy home.

The eighteenth century in Provence, as for the rest of Europe and Britain were glory years. The land rich, fertile and profitable, providing prosperity through active trade. More sophisticated pieces of furniture were influenced by Paris fashions, appearing, as the Provencal furniture makers responding to the sinuous curves of the rococo, and the lyrical elegance of furniture of the Louis XV style.

The Residents in Arles, Beucaire and Tarascon in the Rhone region, could afford to pay more for fine furniture, produced by the local craftsmen and two styles particularly distinguish this area known as Arles and Fourques.

Arlesian pieces have their emphasis is more elaborate and ornate carving, with curved lines and lavish floral detail on delicate, low relief, such as garlands of roses, flower buds and olive branches and called fleuri, or flowered.

Fourques was a smaller simpler town which produced furniture with deeply sculpted curves and undulating moldings with little or no decorative motifs, and with less carved detail and ornamentation.

Louis XV Bergere, comfortable for conversation with curvacious cabriole legs

Louis XVI Bergere, with its classical straight legs

Louis XV designs were simplified with perfect proportions, and today are highly prized. Comfort and convenience meant comfortable well stuffed Bergere chairs with a detailed carving on the front apron and on the knee of the cabriole legs.

Louis XVI designs reflect the change to the neo classical style with their straight fluted legs that take their form from a column.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, design became exaggerated, losing some of its elegance, harmony and balance. Then the turn of the twentieth century saw mass production of furniture in the north marking the decline of the Provencal regional style and the demise of French provincial design in general.

Unpretentious, warm and welcoming, the interiors of Provence today reflect the heritage of Provencal life and the Provenceur’s enjoyment of the simple pleasures of life; the sharing of good food, the local wine and the art of good conversation.

The style of Provence in every domain represents a view of French country style, which has been transmitted internationally. This earthy, fertile, sunbaked region of France for many is the very essence and at the heart of French Country style charming visitors and influencing decorators worldwide. This is something we can all share wherever we are in the world. Provence is all about celebrating la joie de vivre, or the joy of life.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2011

*Vincent Van Gogh, Provence

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   Course Outline

Provence, Provence, just by saying your name many believe they can almost savour the piquant freshness of your renowned goat cheeses and taste the enticing soft bouquet of your delicious local wines. Your French country style is very much admired world wide. It has developed through the people, the produce of the land, and the practical elements necessary for everyday life.

Provence is a region in southern France that has clear and clean air when, from time to time it is swept from the north, or northwest by the Maestrale or mistral wind. It plays an important role in creating this cleansing climate. It is c’est magnifique when the mistral dies down and cloudless skies and luminous sunshine appear. Then we can enjoy viewing the suns rays reflecting off waving fields of golden wheat, or flowering crops of precious lavender while its soothing perfume wafts over us on a gentler breeze.

From a lofty vantage point high in its mountains you can view the beauty of a peaceful valley below where the river Aigue Brun (aigue being the Provencal word for water) winds its way through verdant valleys. Then you can journey along a gently winding road to the highest heights where you can stop at a small restaurant hidden away in a scenic spot. There you can join people from all walks of life savouring the delights of the local cuisine in an atmosphere of congeniality. It is a happy, relaxed atmosphere in a place where time seemingly stands still.

Every marauding army in history has more than likely passed through the same spot. While you are there you will become aware that you are really only but a small dot on the amazing history of this ancient place. The Franks, the Goths, the Visigoths, the Burgundians, the Saracens, the Normans and the Romans all came, saw and conquered.

Around 125 years after the birth of Jesus Christ the Romans gave this extraordinary territory its name, which came from the Latin word Provincia. Its rugged terrain provided safe passage between the city of Rome and its Iberian territories. Since the first century, it has been very Civilised – at the beginnings of art.

The Celts were a diverse group of tribal peoples from the Iron Age who inhabited much of Europe by four centuries before the Christ event. Together with the Liguriens, the original inhabitants of the Cote d’Azur, they melded together establishing more than thirty towns.

They traded vigorously both with the peoples who came from the sea, the Etruscans in the north of Italy as well as the Greeks at a trading post, which we now know as Marseilles.

The Romans wanted to be part of this thriving trade. Not liking unsavory religious practices, which included human sacrifice, through a series of wars they conquered the Celtic-Ligurien races to take Provence for themselves.

By the 1st century the Romans controlled most of Provence and with it, the people, the commerce and trade.

Aix en Provence had natural springs and the Romans established a system of aqueducts that carried water from natural springs into the town and their bath houses, bathing being such an important aspect of their daily health ritual.

Aix takes its name from Aquae Sextiae – the waters of Sextius, who was the subduer of the Celts. Many fountains encrusted with limestone and moss decorated with dolphins still remain as a symbol of empire departed.

When the Romans finally withdrew they left behind many rich architectural remains. The Fort de Bukes (Buoux) set in the south range of the Luberon mountains looks down over a precipitous valley like so many others in which the people of Provence fell prey to any tribe that happened to be passing.

Mist in the Morning in the Luberon

Provence is roughly divided into three areas, that of the mountainous areas towards Italy, which are poor, isolated and austere. Then there is the coastal and Maritime area along the Mediterranean, containing all of the important ports such as Marseilles, Nice, Cannes and Toulon. Then there is the area around the Rhone, where in its valleys tall slender cypress shade farmhouses with herb gardens that come from Roman heritage

The style of Provence represents a view of French country style, which has been transmitted internationally.

This earthy, fertile, sunbaked region of France for many is at the very essence and heart of French Country style. It continues to charm visitors and influence  designers and decorators worldwide. When climatic extremes, such as the notorious mistral wind strike they wisely retreat indoors and bolt their shutters.

This is a land where magnificent avenues of plane trees provide a link from the road to the Provencal garden. The height and length of their planting may impress the visitor with the extent of the owner’s dominions.

However the reason they are there was not that because the Renaissance nobles who planted them were not concerned with the Mediterranean climate, but in fact were more in need of wood for the gun carriages of cannons, ship masts, rifle butts, furniture and even matches. Whether public or private these great avenues today afford fabulous protection from the fierce summer sun. They create softly filtered light and provide a strong sense of a protective enclosure, producing a pleasurable effect.

Country roads throughout Provence are bordered in graceful trees, providing shelter on relentlessly hot Provencal summer days.  Many of these were planted during Napoleon’s reign as Emperor in France. On his order they were planted in great stands and set each side of a village on all the  main routes to and from Italy. This allowed his troops to lie down and rest in the shade and for the villagers to provide the food and sustenance they needed. Their mature beauty today enhances the look of the Provincial landscape.

The hill villagers in Vaison La Romaine fortified their town by using the terrain as their defense. Clustered around the summit of limestone hills it has been continuously occupied since mediaeval times, the houses in alleyways no wider than a pair of passing oxen. They were built when the need arose, and improved upon only when the pocket permitted. The builders paid less heed to architectural conventions of symmetry than to a pressing need to make the most of limited space.

During Spain’s occupation from the 12th century we could assume that the influence of leather work and metal work on furniture first started.

Provence until the end of the fifteenth century was a group of states entirely separate from France.  It had its own language, government and a sense of style, with deeply rooted ideas and philosophies first founded in strong traditions.  They kept goats and ate fish, grew herbs in abundance, as well as olives which were introduced by the Greeks. With the fabled vitis vinifera grape vine for stock they made wine and became great consumers of wild boar as well as truffles.

The oak forests of Provence would have been prime truffle territory then as now. The little slivers of this celestial fungus harbors many of the amusing stories of the region. They were often obtained by nefarious means or through a local truffle fair not listed in any tourist guide.

For three hundred years from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century Italy continued its influence of the area by negotiating binding commercial treaties linking Genoa, Florence and Venice with Provence. Oriental goods passed through its most important port Marseilles. East Indian merchant ships unloaded cargoes of exotic goods such as silks, spices, inlaid and lacquered furniture, and precious porcelain from Cathay. All of these had a very great influence on the designs of local craftsmen.

At Fontaine de Vaucluse the silver tones of olive trees contrast strikingly with the hues and rough texture of rocky outcrops that litter the mountains in the South Range of the Luberon.

As we approach the ancient village of Gordes in the Luberon Mountains we come across the old abbey of Senanque standing in an extraordinary setting. The harmony of the brown stone of the roofs, the white stone of the walls, and the violet of the flowering lavender, makes for a striking contrast with the plateau whose rocky outcrop was once littered with borie, or the dry stone huts used by shepherds and early Christian hermits.

Evidence of the traditions inherited from classical antiquity are still strong in Provence.

At the Jardin de la Fontaine in Nimes is one of the most famous and elegant shrines of the Roman world. It was resurrected by King Louis XV (1710-1774) who surrounded it with a great garden preserving its heritage for the glory of France, and the use of its people.

In this wonderful public space is a marvelous mixture of French and Italian influences, drawing the two cultures together in a dramatic feature that has a complex series of monumental steps and levels leading to the Roman baths where you can still today both soothe your spirit and refresh your soul.

Today the people of Provence continue to both nurture the land and harvest the sea treating each new arrival with the same resigned equanimity they do for the annual invasion of at least one and a half million holidaymakers.

In Provence a graceful flow of the earth’s natural elements is in evidence – human, geological, botanical and architectural. They emphasize the layers of its unique history in a place that is now one of peace, joy and contemplation.

It is a place where man and nature have seemingly come together in complete harmony.

The mistral may not howl down your chimney, but the exuberant spirit of Provence and innate style of France’s peoples can be yours if only you dare reach for it.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2011

*Vincent Van Gogh, Provence

Related posts:

1. French Country Style – Provence and joi de vivre
2. French Country Style – Provence tres chic ‘indiennes’
3. EVOLUTION OF ART, DESIGN & STYLE
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