Elsie De Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration [Hardcover]

Penny Sparke; Mitchell Owens (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0926494279 | ISBN-13: 978-0926494275 | Publication Date: April 1, 2005

Elsie de Wolfe is a 20th-century legend and is the mother of modern interior decoration. Her name is familiar to many who practice the art of interior design or who are linked to the fashionable world of tastemaking. She provided appropriate settings for the new rich in the first half of the 20th century and in the process helped to shape our understanding of what we have come to know as the modern domestic interior. I am going in now for interior decoration. By that I mean supplying objets d art and giving advice regarding the decoration of their houses to wealthy persons who do not have the time, inclination, nor culture to do such work for themselves. It is nothing new. Women have done the same thing before. (Elsie de Wolfe) Through the measured re-examination of known materials as well as the review of history-clarifying documents that have been overlooked or underused by previous de Wolfe enthusiasts, Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration provides the foundation of a renewed interest in her groundbreaking career, her philosophy of design, and her belief that an atmosphere of beauty could cure a world of ills. This large format, profusely illustrated book covers 29 projects (including Villa Trianon, The Colony Club, Anne Vanderbilt, Anne Morgan, the Duchess of Windsor, and J. Ogden Armour, to name a few) and concludes with a timeline of her works. Written by English decorative arts scholar Penny Sparke and edited by New York Times contributor Mitchell Owens, Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration presents the most in-depth look ever into the design aesthetic of this early 20th-century master decorator.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An actress and social climber with a love for the dramatic, Elsie de Wolfe defined interior decorating from the gilded age through two world wars, the jazz age and the onset of modernism. She began with the residence she shared with companion and theatrical manager Elisabeth Marbury and expanded her client list to include newly moneyed Americans looking for social respectability via graceful, 18th-century-inspired interiors: Anne Morgan, Condé Nast, Henry Clay Frick, J. Pierpont Morgan, Anne Vanderbilt and the Duchess of Windsor. In her later career, she traded in genteel American aristocracy for rising Hollywood stars such as Ethel Barrymore and Gary Cooper. Sparke proceeds through these chintz-draped residences of the "smart set" like any good docent: a touch of background followed by a detailed tour: "De Wolfe was extremely particular about the equipment of dressing rooms and boudoirs. Many drawers were needed to contain letter-writing equipment, among other things, to save having to go into another room to get them. A hollow table on casters was also thought to be an asset in a dressing room, as were a heated towel rack, a wall cabinet, lots of shelves and hooks, and a shallow bottle closet. The wall had to be lined with closets, painted with bright colors inside and 'fitted with perfumed pads.' Even the clothes hangers had to be covered with chintz." In a large format coffee-table book illustrated with 273 black-and-white and just 12 color archival photographs and illustrations, descriptions do as good a job as possible of providing the reader with a sense of the mauves and greens that were a hallmark of de Wolfe's work. Well-written-Sparke and Owens manage to keep what could have been repetitious accounts of Chinoiserie panels and rococo bibelots varied and interesting-it is the most thorough accounting of de Wolfe's work to date.

Review

Beautifully illustrated, definitive work. One of the top-five illustrated books of the 2005. --Sunday Times (London)

Well written and interesting...The most thorough accounting of de Wolfe's work to date. --Publishers Weekly

This book, lavishly illustrated with hundreds of photographs, will provide hours of pleasure for those who wandered where tented ceilings came from, or mirrored fireplace surrounds --Florida Inside Out

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 372 pages
• Publisher: Acanthus Press (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0926494279
• ISBN-13: 978-0926494275
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 10.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,041,869 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A WOMAN AHEAD OF HER TIME, November 25, 2007

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Elsie De Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration (Hardcover)

Elsie de Wolfe, born in 1865 give or take a few years, was a woman ahead of her time. She is noted for her taste in interior decoration, although she did not begin that career until after she was 40 years of age. Her earlier life had been spent as a stage actress, an occupation that raised eyebrows during the Victorian era.

Nonetheless, when she turned to her new career it was with the following announcement: "I am going in now for interior decoration. By that I mean supplying objets d'art and giving advice regarding the decoration of their houses to wealthy persons who do not have the time, inclination, nor culture to do such work for themselves. It is nothing new. Women have done the same thing before."

Perhaps so, but probably not with de Wolfe's impressive client list, which included Anne Vanderbilt, the duke and duchess of Windsor, and Adelaide and Henry Clay Frick.

This fascinating volume holds some 300 color plates tracing her designs of numerous rooms for the rich and famous, as well as rooms at Barnard College, and perhaps her greatest love, the refurbishment of the Villa Trianon. For this reader, an intriguing section is the one devoted to de Wolfe's private residence in Paris. Marriage to Sir Charles Mendl, a press attache to the British Embassy in Paris, gave de Wolfe entree to English aristocracy, albeit not terribly high on the ladder. Nonetheless the new Lady Mendl needed a proper setting to entertain. In addition to the Mendls, the apartment she found became home to a journalist friend, John McMullin. Lord Mendl chose to also retain his bachelor dwelling. This apartment was pure de Wolfe, reflecting as she had once written: "It is the personality of the mistress that the home expresses. Men are forever guests in our houses, no matter how much happiness they may find there."

Later, she would decorate rooms for herself at New York's St. Regis, and the Plaza. After going to California in 1941, she refurbished her last house in Beverly Hills for herself and her husband.

She was a trendsetter and, undoubtedly, a self-promoter who lived life to the fullest and precisely as she chose to do so. This volume is apt tribute to her style, persistence, and ingenuity.

Highly recommended.

- Gail Cooke

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Self-made tastemaker, January 22, 2008

By 

S. Annetta (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Elsie De Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration (Hardcover)

An exclusive self-made member of the design cognoscenti, Elsie de Wolfe was a social climber and a tastemaker. This is an unrivalled publication of a woman who pretty much defined style in the early part of the 20th century and is recognized as being the first paid interior designer in America. Full of photographs (although in black and white) of her projects and her own homes, this is a great addition to the library of anyone who is interested in classic decorating and the history of decorative arts.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HISTORICAL SENSATION, March 18, 2007

By 

John Witherspoon "John" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elsie De Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration (Hardcover)

THIS BOOK IS AN HISTORICAL SENSATION....A WONDERFUL READ AND FULL OF STUNNING PICTURES; WELL WORTH HAVING; MAYBE TWO IN YOUR LIBRARY ONE TO KEEP AND ONE TO CONSTANTLY REFER TO FOR INSPIRATION......A MUST HAVE !!!!