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Elsie De Wolfe CITE 66 : SPRING 2006 35 Rooms to Live By furniture that fills them, the parameters that define them—are a step away from the material, closer to the ephemeral. Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Nothing built lasts forever, but for the £ Interior Decoration by Penny Spaike, decorators, interior designers, and archi- edited by Mitchell Owens. Acanthus Press, tects who concern themselves intimately 2005. 372 pp., $85. with interior spaces, forever can be an m ,iv\ lulh short nme. It intei mrs have -i The Home in Good Tate by Klsie de chance at an afterlife, it is in the recorded Wolfe, preface and endnotes by Hutron memory ol individuals who experienced Wilkinson, introduction by Albert Hadley. them, in writing, and in images. A look at \ Riz/oh, 2004. ?6H pp., $26. recent books dedicated to Flsie de Wolfe and Eileen Cray, two of the preeminent / itcen Gray by Penelope Rowlands. interior designers of the last century, gives Compact Design Portfolio series, edi- some sense of what remains and what can tors Marisa Baitotucd and Rani I abr.i. still be both enjoyed and learned from Chronicle Books, 2002. 96 pp., $12.95. work that is inaccessible—either much altered or lost altogether. liieen Gray by Caroline Constant. Phaidon, 2000. 256 pp., $59.95. Elsie de Wolfe was born in New York City in 1865; her lather's family was Eileen Gray: Architect/Designer, revised French Huguenot and had moved to edition, by Peter Adam. Abrams, 2000. Connecticut from Nova Scotia. Her . 408 pp.. $3935. mother was born in Scotland, and her cousin, chaplain at Balmoral Castle, i Renewed by Laura Eurnun arranged to have de Wolfe presented to ' Queen Victoria at court. De Wolfe grew i "The walls are covered with an Oriental up then with manners and with no tear . paper patterned with marvelous blue* of the rich and titled, though she herself and-green birds, birds of paradise and had neither wealth nor social standing. gw ^ parakeets perched on flowering branches," She was unusually sensitive to the visual. ' f wrote Elsie de Wolfe of the bird room In her memoir After Ail she recalls her * in the original Colony Club, which was reaction to new wallpaper in the family - built in 1902 and was one of her first drawing room, when she "threw herself big projects as a decorator. "The black on the floor, kicking with stiffened legs." v lacquer furniture was especially designed When her physician father died in 1890, lor the room. The rug and hangings are de Wolfe became a professional actress, a of jade green. I wonder how this seems to slippery position in the early part of the read of—can only say it is a very gay and 20th century, to help support her family. happy room to live in!" Though neither beautiful nur particular!) We have to take de Wolfe's word for talented, de Wolfe was striking looking, it, The bird room is no more. The Colony moved well, and wore clothes wonderful- Club occupies another building. When we ly. She was also lucky in love. Performing Iwo designais ol contrasting styles: too. Elsie de Wolfe nl lief Avenue d'leno aptirlnient; uoove, Eileen Cray in hei Pons uporiineiii look at black-and-white photographs ot in an amateur production at Tuxedo Park de Wolfe's interiors, images often fuzzy in 1887, de Wolfe met Elisabeth Marbury, and badly lit, iheir gaict\ and happiness an influential theatrical producer and liter- escapes us. al) agent whose client lisi included Oscar plying objets d'art and giving advice Colony Club; Conde Nast's apartment at We remember rooms in a number Wilde. The women were together for M) regarding ihe decoration ol then houses 1040 Park Avenue; and, for the Duke and of ways: the light as it settled on certain sears, and their homes became de Wolfe's to wealthy persons who do not have the Duchess of Windsor, projects in London, objects, the colors and textures, where design laboratories, places where she time, inclination, nor culture to do such Paris, Cap d'Antibes, and Nassau. we sat, and, as a culmination of all this, could practice her ideas for interiors. work for themselves. It is nothing new. De Wolfe believed in mirrors, light, how we felt in that moment. But what of It was after having met a range of rich Women have done the same thing before." air, and color, in balance and suitabil- rooms that we've never been in, what of and powerful people through Marbury De Wolfe's self-confidence, ml el ity. She used chintz so extensively and rooms that no longer exist? I low can they 111.11 de Wolfe ill tided In um up ,u line. ligeuce, and sense of humor served her consistently thai she became known as be remembered and appreciated? I low can and take up unci ioi decor.u a rol< well. Over a long career she decorated the Chintz Lady, and she often created I he designers ot rooms that no longer exist likely more satisfying than any she'd the Frick Mansion in New York; the a scheme around an object—rug, lamp, be understood and remembered as some played on stage. In 1905, de Wolfe wrote Magnolia and George Scab' Residence in ceramic vase. She painted furniture white thing more than names? in Vanity Fair: "I am going in now for Galveston; Brooks Hall, a 97-room dor- and hated brass beds, preferring metal Interior spaces—different from the interior decoration. By that I mean sup- mitory for Barnard College; the original beds painted white. I "I think the three 36 CITE 66 : SPRING 2O06 gives the reader a solid sense of de Wolfe's made and individually designed objects to I 1 i i I intelligence and energy, something she an architecture that was an extension of • accomplishes through an excellent presen- her ideas about the kind of interior space i * [ tation not only of de Wolfe's individual human beings need. Though she was well t history, but also of the social and histori- versed in the ideas of her contemporaries, cal context of her achievements. Sparke (.ray was not polemical. She foresaw the tells us that because ol de Wolfe's business dehumanizing danger ot the mass-built 3W* success, by the 1920s and 1930s "the even as she worked to perfect building i .• female interior decorator had become techniques. Many of her architectural 1 a significant phenomenon, especially in designs remained hypothetical; disappoint- America." Following World War II, male- ing as that might have been for dray, il r dominated modernism ascended as the removed her from the arena ot career and dominant aesthetic ideology, eclipsing and business, 1 ler integrity remained intact, undermining the achievements ol de Wolfe and she had the toughness of an artist. and her disciples. As part ol this new Over lhe years dray's reputation has movement, the more professional-sound- waxed and waned, and her fate might be ing term "interior designer"—used per to be rediscovered by each new generation haps because it was less sexually suspect and 11.limed .is us own. and implied a level ol higher education Gray was a native of Ireland, the and training—began to displace the more daughter of a baroness and an artist. Born The boudoir in Villa Innnon, the house in Veisodles in which Elsie de Wolfe lived, and which s k decoiotsd and redecorated rai decades old-fashioned "interior decorator." in IS7K, by 1907 she had established her- Though The Birth of Modem Interior sell in Paris, where she would occupy the ninsi glaring errors we \merieans make equacy. It will express your life, if you use Decoration is generously illustrated, we same apartment for the rest of her long are rocking chairs, lace curtains, and it, so be careful of the lite you live in it." often get a stronger sense ot a de Wolfe life, dray was independently wealthy and brass beds." she noted.) De Wolfe loved In the recently re-published I'he interior from Sparke's words than we do so never had to contend with architectural fireplaces, rreillage, .mil a room with House in Hood Taste [originally ghost- from the visual evidence of de Wolfe's clients. That u.is prohahls a good thing; a daybed (lit de repos). She preached written by Hubs Ross Wood, herself a designs. Words can preserve even the Meet- she was too shy for the compromises and about the value of the authentic versus decorator), de Wolfe's philosophy of liv- ing experience of an interior. For example, negotiations necessary for architectural the newly reproduced: "A pewter plat- ing and design comes across clearly. De in a memoir of her years as editor-in-chief and design practices. ter that has been used lor generations is Wolfe dismissed the idea that all furniture of Vogue, Fdna Woohiun Chase wrote < iray began by designing and creat- dulled and softened to a glow that a new in a well-planned room must be of the thai when you were in a de Wolfe room ing furniture, rugs, and extraordinary platter cannot rival, What charm is to a same kind (a lesson shelter magazines "you were at ease. The lights were well lacquered screens. Some ol her designs of person, the vague thing called quality is still emphasize from rime to time). 1 let placed for reading and the chairs were furnishings were site-specific, and dray to an object of art." She crusaded against precise dicta—such as the discussion comfortable.
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