Interior Decorating in Nineteenth-century France ― The Visual Culture of a New Profession

This book examines the beginnings of the interior-design profession in nineteenth-century France. Here, the ideal domestic interior was represented and expressed through various media outlets, including collecting and domestic-advice manuals, pattern books, illustrated magazines, art and architectural exhibitions and department-store catalogues. Upholsterers, cabinet-makers, architects, stage designers, department store managers, taste advisors, collectors and illustrators 'sold' the interior as an image and a work of art to their customers and the public at large. The book argues that the growing visual culture of the interior, encouraged by new, modern techniques of image-making and reproduction enabled the still-unnamed profession of the interior designer to take shape. Observing the dependence of trades on the visual appeal of their work, the book establishes crucial links between the fields of art history, material and visual culture and design history.

Anca I. Lasc is Assistant Professor of History and Theory of Design at Pratt Institute, USA