On the Means by which Repose is Attainable in Decoration

from Intumus: Interior Design Reader Edited by Mark Taylor and Juleanna Preston 2006 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Christopher Dresser

technological • 1876

After calling for all design work to be imprinted with the quality of repose, Victorian designer Christopher Dresser asserts that such value is directly related to the presence of knowledge and harmony. He outlines how to achieve this 'indispensable art quality' through subtle, neutral and sparing applications of colour, reflection and texture. Dresser's text is a testament to written discourse of the late nineteenth century where effect and experience were regulated by prescriptions of taste and decorum. It also situates interior design finishes and linings as significant contributors to spatial effect.

late 19th century • colour

In my last chapter I insisted on the necessity for our achieving 'repose' in all our decorations, as repose is an indispensable art quality; but the means by which repose was to be attained was not clearly set forth.

In the absence of a manifestation of knowledge, and in the absence of harmony, there cannot be repose; but it does not follow that the reverse must be true, and that because knowledge and harmony are revealed in our works, that there must necessarily be the sense of repose. There is such a thing as a harmony of lights, of bright spots, of glitters, and all glitter is antagonistic to rest. In the manner of the combination of gems we often detect knowledge and harmony; but a room with its sides formed of glittering surfaces could scarcely yield repose, even were it formed of parts of such tints as produce, when combined, a true harmony.

Rooms having their walls largely formed of glazed tiles, or of varnished surfaces, are rarely satisfactory, for the reflections which they of necessity throw out are exciting, and excitement is antagonistic to rest. Excitement is endurable and even useful to the system, if sparingly indulged in; but the constant endurance of excitement is exhausting.

But how are we to achieve the necessary amount of repose in our rooms? We need not paint the walls of our apartments grey, nor of mud-colour, neither need we make them black; indeed, the highest sense of repose – i.e., dreamy, soothing repose, may be realised where

the brightest colours are employed. Repose is attained by the absence of any want. A plain wall of dingy colour reveals a want; it does not then supply all that is necessary to the production of a sense of quiet and rest. A wall may be covered with the richest decoration, and yet be of such a character that the eye will rest upon it and be satisfied.

If strong colours are used upon walls and ceilings, it is usually desirable that they be employed in very small masses; thus blue, red, and yellow may be used upon a wall (the three primary colours), either alone, or together with white, gold, or black, and be so mingled that the general effect will be perfectly neutral, and an effect so produced may induce the highest sense of repose. There will, however, be a glow, or radiance, about such a wall; yet this radiance will only give richness to neutrality, and this is desirable.

Those effects which are 'subtle' – which are not commonplace – which are attained by the expenditure of special skill or knowledge, are the best, provided that the end which is most desired is attained by them. A tertiary colour which is formed of two parts of yellow and one of red and one of blue – in fact, a citrine – is neutral. But a wall covered with a well-designed pattern of minute parts, with the separate members coloured red, blue, and yellow – the yellow being in relation to the blue and the red as two is to one¹ – would be neutral, yet it would be refined and glowing in effect, and thus it would exceed in merit the mere tertiary tint on the wall.

The white ceilings which we have in our rooms are almost fatal to the production of those qualities which yield the sense of repose or rest. A harmony between walls and a ceiling of cream tint² is much more easily attained than between walls and a white ceiling; but there is no reason whatever why a ceiling should not be blue, or any dark colour. No satisfactory room, of dark general aspect, can look well if the ceiling is white, and rooms which are somewhat dark in tone are often desirable. Furniture looks best on a dark ground, unless it be white and gold, when it is invariably execrable. Persons always look better against a somewhat dark background, and pictures on light strongly-figured walls are rarely sufficiently attractive to call to themselves the least attention. If it can be had, I like much window-space, to let in light, but the walls I prefer of darkish hue.

If the room is dark through lack of light, the walls may be light above, and have a dark dado – that is, the lower third, or any desired portion, may be dark, and the upper portion light. If this arrangement is adopted, and the upper part of the wall and the ceiling are each of cream tint, while in the cornice there is a rather broad line of deep blue, and one or more lines of pale blue, and perhaps a very fine line of red, these colours being all separated from each other by white – or, in the absence of a cornice, if the ceiling is surrounded by a border in blue and white – the effect will appear to be lighter and brighter than if the room were all white, and yet there will be a certain amount of repose about the general effect such as could not be easily attained were the ceiling white.

By our decorations we must ever seek to achieve repose, but we must always remember that repose is compatible with richness, subtlety, and radiance of effect. (… p 12)

Notes

1 This is not rigidly correct, but for more exact information I must refer the reader to my Principles of Decorative Design (London), 1873, pp 40, 47, 48. 2 A tint formed by the admixture of a small portion of middle-chrome – that chrome which is half-way between the colour of a lemon and of a deep-coloured orange – with white.

Christopher Dresser, Studies in Design, Cassell, Petter and Galpin (London), 1876. (Excerpt pp 11–12)