Papiers peints, inspirations et tendances

We all go to IKEA, since today wallpaper is not at all expensive. But how did the bourgeois in the past do in their time? The book by Carolle Thibaut-Pomerantz, a well-known specialist in her field, takes us on a trip through time. We learn how, in the Renaissance, the arrival of Italian wives at wealthy homes in France pushed them to search for more sophisticated interiors. If the tapestries from Flandres or the leathers from Cordova seemed too expensive people would turn towards the hangings produced by the artists recognized by a special edict of Henri IV in 1597. The Remondini from Bassano, the Zuber manufacturer in Mulhouse or Révillon in Paris (where the French Revolution started!) are some of the most outstanding names. But we also discover Chinese hand-painted paper, panoramic prints on plate by Dufour at Mâcon in 1804, Japanese-style creations by Walter Crane, trials by Andy Warhol with Nixon as a head board or those by Leonor Fini with fish skeletons: all the audacities of contemporary art can be found on walls…

• Papiers peints, inspirations et tendances par Carolle Thibaut-Pomerantz, Flammarion, 2009, 256p., 75 €, ISBN : 978-2-0812-1698-3