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Residence, “Feminine Sitting Room” (20th century)*
Artist/Designer: Designer Unknown
Project Location: United States
Style/Period(s):
Revival Styles
Primary Material(s):
Textile, Paint
Function(s):
Residential Structure
Related Website(s):
Significant Date(s):
20th Century
Additional Information:
Project Description:
Parson's remarks about the room indicate a transfer of eighteenth-century French ideas in twentieth-century American interiors. Of the drawing room, space normally thought of as a feminine space, Parsons says, "Charming feminine sitting-room in which the simplicity of walls ceiling and floor accentuate the decorative arrangement of the mantel, mirror, window, and wall spacings. The well-balanced arrangement of furniture was placed for comfort and use. Excellent mirror and picture frame, with a picture in spirit with the room and its furnishings. A perfect illustration of great background interestingly treated. Intense colors - proper places for decorative effects." While the room does not display the curvilinear shapes of the rococo or rococo revival styles or intricate carvings and gilding of the neoclassical style, it does implement a floral textile against white walls - two important characteristics of the feminine boudoir. Parson's tacit recognition of these feminine elements are expressed only in his perception of the interior's charm.
Publications/Texts in Print:
Lilley, Ed. "The Name of the Boudoir." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 53, no. 2 (1994): 193-98. doi:10.2307/990892.
Parsons, Frank Alvah. Interior Decoration: Its Principles and Practice (Classic Reprint). New York: Forgotten Books, 2017.
Wright, Margaret Bertha. "Concerning Boudoirs." The Art Amateur 7, no. 6 (1882): 125-26. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25627769.
Tags:
Boudoir, sitting room, femininity, interior decoration, Frank Alvah Parsons, floral, textiles
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