Panoramic Wallpaper

Suite of eight strips of wallpaper belonging to the panoramic “picturesque landscapes” after Joseph Dufour.

- Period: Second half of the 19th century by the Desfossé and Karth manufacture.

-The complete set of this panoramic titled "Picturesque Landscapes" includes 30 strips printed in color. The original model was created by the Manufacture DUFOUR in Paris around 1832 and then reissued in the second half of the 19th century by Desfossé & Karth. The patterns were printed in color on a wooden block, with the exception of the backgrounds which were brushed by hand, this technique making it possible to obtain the subtle gradation of the skies.

-The proposed panels (lengths 23 to 30) represent a ride of Arab horsemen, a French camp where the tent is surmounted by a Gallic rooster and some leafy trees giving a glimpse of the beginning of a Norman house (this last motif allowing the connection with the very first length of the panoramic which represents the view of a Normandy coast).

-The pattern is printed mainly on the lower part of the strip so that the look meets the scenes with "naturalness", the wallpapers being placed above the support furniture at about one meter from the ground. To circumvent the difficulty of fitting from one strip to another; the draftsman ensured a continuity of the horizontal reading by a succession of terrestrial landscapes with scenes of characters which parade in the foreground and by sea horizons in the background which unify the composition.

-Perspectives play an important role in the rhythm of the landscape. Also the designers of panoramics use processes to "pierce" the wall surface, to give depth, as here with the staggering of the planes, and the expanses of sand which stretch to infinity. The draftsman has set up separation patterns aimed at delimiting the different regions, for example the ditch where we can see the ride of Arab horsemen makes it possible to separate the Arab camp from the French camp.

- Vegetation also plays an important role. It punctuates the composition without breaking the continuity and participates in the discourse since it evolves from temperate leafy trees to oriental palm trees, passing through the umbrella pine of Mediterranean countries.

- A real museum collector's item, these panoramic wallpaper strips are important because the available corpus is very small. This rarity, intimately linked to the nature of the papers and the fact that they had to respond to the fluctuating taste of fashions while being glued to the wall surfaces, is easily explained.

Concerning this panoramic "Picturesque Landscape" in French public collections:

- lengths 3 to 4, are kept at the Museum of Brittany (Rennes), inv: 979.0053.1
- a color model lithograph by Joseph Dufour (1832) is kept at MAD Paris, inv. 51656/6A
- a black and white advertising lithograph of lengths 16 to 30, published by CLERC MARGERIDON et Cie, manufacturers of Wallpapers is kept at MAD Paris, inv. 51656/6B

Joined or continuous paper technique, hand-brushed background, color woodblock printing.

State of conservation: 8 strips mounted on two plywood panels that connect. Chips, wear, restorations

Total dimensions: 405 cm x 405 cm (2 panels of 205 cm x 205 cm)