A WOMAN AHEAD OF HER TIME

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	• Elsie De Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration Penny Sparke, Mitchell Owens, ... Acanthus Press, 2005 - 372 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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HISTORICAL SENSATION

THIS BOOK IS AN HISTORICAL SENSATION....A WONDERFUL READ AND FULL OF STUNNING PICTURES; WELL WORTH HAVING; MAYBE TWO IN YOUR LIBRARY ONE TO KEEP AND ONE TO CONSTANTLY REFER TO FOR INSPIRATION......A MUST HAVE !!!!

Fascinating!

A very interesting collection from Acanthus Press: very well documented, pleasant to read with a real work of documentation from the author. Despite some peoples who tried to minimise her influence, Ms de Wolfe - Mendl was an extraordinary visionnaire and has given worldwide interiors a basis that can still be found in all discerning family houses nowadays.
A very fascinating book for all interested by beauty and taste!

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A WOMAN AHEAD OF HER TIME

Elsie de Wolfe, born in 1865 give or take a few years, was a woman ahead of her time. She is noted for her taste in interior decoration, although she did not begin that career until after she was 40 years of age. Her earlier life had been spent as a stage actress, an occupation that raised eyebrows during the Victorian era.

Nonetheless, when she turned to her new career it was with the following announcement: "I am going in now for interior decoration. By that I mean supplying objets d'art and giving advice regarding the decoration of their houses to wealthy persons who do not have the time, inclination, nor culture to do such work for themselves. It is nothing new. Women have done the same thing before."

Perhaps so, but probably not with de Wolfe's impressive client list, which included Anne Vanderbilt, the duke and duchess of Windsor, and Adelaide and Henry Clay Frick.

This fascinating volume holds some 300 color plates tracing her designs of numerous rooms for the rich and famous, as well as rooms at Barnard College, and perhaps her greatest love, the refurbishment of the Villa Trianon. For this reader, an intriguing section is the one devoted to de Wolfe's private residence in Paris. Marriage to Sir Charles Mendl, a press attache to the British Embassy in Paris, gave de Wolfe entree to English aristocracy, albeit not terribly high on the ladder. Nonetheless the new Lady Mendl needed a proper setting to entertain. In addition to the Mendls, the apartment she found became home to a journalist friend, John McMullin. Lord Mendl chose to also retain his bachelor dwelling. This apartment was pure de Wolfe, reflecting as she had once written: "It is the personality of the mistress that the home expresses. Men are forever guests in our houses, no matter how much happiness they may find there."

Later, she would decorate rooms for herself at New York's St. Regis, and the Plaza. After going to California in 1941, she refurbished her last house in Beverly Hills for herself and her husband.

She was a trendsetter and, undoubtedly, a self-promoter who lived life to the fullest and precisely as she chose to do so. This volume is apt tribute to her style, persistence, and ingenuity.

Highly recommended.

- Gail Cooke

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Self-made tastemaker

An exclusive self-made member of the design cognoscenti, Elsie de Wolfe was a social climber and a tastemaker. This is an unrivalled publication of a woman who pretty much defined style in the early part of the 20th century and is recognized as being the first paid interior designer in America. Full of photographs (although in black and white) of her projects and her own homes, this is a great addition to the library of anyone who is interested in classic decorating and the history of decorative arts.

Elsie de Wolfe is a 20th-century legend and is the mother of modern interior decoration. Her name is familiar to many who practice the art of interior design or who are linked to the fashionable world of tastemaking. She provided appropriate settings for the new rich in the first half of the 20th century and in the process helped to shape our understanding of what we have come to know as the modern domestic interior. I am going in now for interior decoration. By that I mean supplying objets d art and giving advice regarding the decoration of their houses to wealthy persons who do not have the time, inclination, nor culture to do such work for themselves. It is nothing new. Women have done the same thing before. (Elsie de Wolfe) Through the measured re-examination of known materials as well as the review of history-clarifying documents that have been overlooked or underused by previous de Wolfe enthusiasts, Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration provides the foundation of a renewed interest in her groundbreaking career, her philosophy of design, and her belief that an atmosphere of beauty could cure a world of ills. This large format, profusely illustrated book covers 29 projects (including Villa Trianon, The Colony Club, Anne Vanderbilt, Anne Morgan, the Duchess of Windsor, and J. Ogden Armour, to name a few) and concludes with a timeline of her works. Written by English decorative arts scholar Penny Sparke and edited by New York Times contributor Mitchell Owens, Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration presents the most in-depth look ever into the design aesthetic of this early 20th-century master decorator.

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