Design for Wall Paneling and Ceiling in Pompeiian Style, The Deepdene, Dorking, Surrey
Medium
Watercolor
Dimensions
12 7/8 x 4 1/8 in. (32.7 x 10.4 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Dodge Fund, 1967
Accession Number
67.827.12
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate watercolor design, created by French architects Jules-EdmondCharles Lachaise andène-Pierre Gourdet between1875 and 1879, envisions opulent wall paneling and ceiling decorations in the Pompeiian style for The Deepdene, a grand Gothic Revival estate in Dorking,. Measuring just 12⅞ × 4⅛ inches, it captures intricate motifs inspired by the ancient Roman frescoes unearthed at Pompeii—vibrant arabesques, garlands, and mythological figures rendered with the precision of 19th-century ornamental draftsmanship. The Pompeiian Revival, peaking in the Victorian era, reflected a Romantic fasc...
About the Artist
Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise|Eugène-Pierre Gourdet · 1897–1897
Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise, born Jules Lachaise on September 2, 1836, in Paris, emerged as a prominent French painter and draughtsman specializing in lavish interior decorations during the Second Empire and beyond. Little is known about his early life and formal training, though he married Berthe Gourdet in 1866, forging a close professional partnership with her brother, the decorator Eugène-Pi...