Elsie de Wolfe
Encyclopedia
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, "Interior Design as a profession was invented by Elsie de Wolfe." During her married life, the press usually referred to her as Lady Mendl.
Career
In the 18th century, interior decoration was the purview of upholsterers (who sold fabrics and furniture) and architects (who employed a variety of craftsmen and artisans to complete interior design schemes for clients). In the 19th century, the skills of designers such as Candace WheelerCandace Wheeler
Candace Wheeler , often credited as the "mother" of interior design, was one of America's first woman interior and textile designers. She is famous for helping to open the field of interior design to women, making decorative art affordable, and for encouraging a new style of American design...
and design firms such as Herter Brothers
Herter Brothers
The firm of Herter Brothers, New York, , founded by Gustave and Christian Herter , begun as an upholstery warehouse, became one of the first firms of furniture makers and interior decorators in the United States after the Civil War...
were well known. De Wolfe reaped publicity and was one of the field's most famed practitioner in the early 1900s, a period that als o saw an increase of interest in interior design in the popular press. Among her clients were Anne Vanderbilt, Anne Morgan, the Duke
Duke of Windsor
The title Duke of Windsor was created in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1937 for Prince Edward, the former King Edward VIII, following his abdication in December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, a residence of English monarchs since the Norman Conquest, is...
and Duchess of Windsor
Wallis, The Duchess of Windsor
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, previously Wallis Simpson, was an American socialite whose third husband, Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom and the Dominions, abdicated his throne to marry her.Wallis's father died shortly after her birth, and she and her...
, Elizabeth Milbank Anderson
Elizabeth Milbank Anderson
Elizabeth Milbank Anderson , philanthropist and advocate for public health and women's education, was the daughter of Jeremiah Milbank , a successful commission merchant, manufacturer and investor, and Elizabeth Lake...
(philanthropist) and Adelaide and Henry Clay Frick
Henry Clay Frick
Henry Clay Frick was an American industrialist, financier, and art patron. He founded the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturing company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, and played a major role in the formation of the giant U.S. Steel steel manufacturing concern...
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1026/is_3_168/ai_n15661727 . She transformed the design of wealthy homes from the dark Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
style into designs featuring light, fresh colors and a reliance on 18th-century French furniture and reproductions.
In her autobiography, de Wolfe—born Ella Anderson de Wolfe and the only daughter of a Canadian-born doctor—calls herself a "rebel in an ugly world." Speaking of herself in the third person, she says that her mother said often that she was ugly, but "just what ugly was she did not know... Now she was to know." Arriving home from school, she found that her parents had redecorated the drawing-room:
- She ran [in]... and looked at the walls, which had been papered in a [William] MorrisWilliam MorrisWilliam Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
design of gray palm-leaves and splotches of bright red and green on a background of dull tan. Something terrible that cut like a knife came up inside her. She threw herself on the floor, kicking with stiffened legs, as she beat her hands on the carpet.... she cried out, over and over: "It's so ugly! It's so ugly."
Hutton Wilkinson, president of the Elsie de Wolfe Foundation, notes that of course many things that De Wolfe hated, such as "pickle and plum Morris furniture," are prized by museums and designers; he believes that “De Wolfe simply didn’t like Victorian—the high style of her sad childhood—and chose to banish it from her design vocabulary."
De Wolfe appeared with The Amateur Comedy Club in New York City as Lady Clara Seymour in "A Cup of Tea," (April 1886), and as Maude Ashley in "Sunshine," a one act comedy by Fred W. Broughton (December 1886). De Wolfe began her professional career in theatre, making her debut as an actress in Sardou's
Victorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play...
Thermidor
Thermidor (play)
Thermidor is a four-act 1891 dramatic play by the 19th-century French playwright Victorien Sardou. The play is set during the French Revolution, almost exactly 100 years prior, and is one of seven Sardou plays set in that period...
in 1891, playing the rôle of Fabienne with Forbes-Robertson
Johnston Forbes-Robertson
Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson was an English actor and theatre manager. He was considered the finest Hamlet of the nineteenth century and one of the finest actors of his time, despite his dislike of the job and his lifelong belief that he was temperamentally unsuited to acting.-Early life:Born in...
. In 1894 she joined the Empire Stock Company under Charles Frohman
Charles Frohman
Charles Frohman was an American theatrical producer. Frohman was producing plays by 1889 and acquired his first Broadway theatre by 1892. He discovered and promoted many stars of the American theatre....
. In 1901 she brought out The Way of the World under her own management at the Victoria Theatre, and later she toured the United States with this play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
. On stage, she was neither a total failure nor a great success; one critic called her “the leading exponent of . . . the peculiar art of wearing good clothes well.” She became interested in interior decorating as a result of staging plays, and in 1903 she left the stage to launch a career as a decorator.
As have been described as the first lady of interior decoration, Elsie De Wolfe was without a doubt the first woman to have created occupation as a designer when none had existed before her. Through her, she introduced some of the most stylish and sophisticated ideas into the American homes that have been seen at that time. Elsie's presence in the design field was very apparent since she was a woman in a nearly exclusively masculine field. Many elements aided her in becoming such an influential woman designer. She had social connections in society, she already had a notable reputation as a designer, and her success in designing the interior of the house that she and close friend, Elisabeth Marbury, shared all helped her become the designer she was.
Elsie De Wolfe, however, was not a designer all of her life. She actually began her career as an Interior Decorator at about the age of 40. Replacing that of which Victorian style was presented, she chooses a more vibrant scheme, along with more comfortable furniture in the home to sit in. Her design was very feminine opposed to the very masculine design that came before it. Her designs were very light with fresh colors and delicate Chinoiserie furnishings, and soft, comfortably upholstered chairs, opposed to the Victorian design of heavy, red velvet drapes and upholstery, dark wood, and intensely patterned wallpapers. In her own words, she said, “I opened the doors and windows of America and let the air and sunshine in.” Her inspiration came from many designers and styles such as the 18th century French and English furnishings. Elsie studied many aspects of the French lifestyle. Taking in the art of entertainment, food, arts, and fashion, she brought those elements into the American society. This was portrayed in her new outlook on art and fashion, and also showed in her designs.
Along with her design being much brighter and softer, it was also much more practical. She eliminated the clutter that used to occupy the Victorian home, which allowed people to entertain more guests comfortably. She introduced a variety of things, including: the cocktail party, comfortable chaise lounges, faux finish treatments, animal prints, delicate writing tables, and other things.
In 1905, Stanford White
Stanford White
Stanford White was an American architect and partner in the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms. He designed a long series of houses for the rich and the very rich, and various public, institutional, and religious buildings, some of which can be found...
, the architect for The Colony Club
Colony Club
The Colony Club is a private social club in New York City. Founded in 1903 by Florence Jaffray Harriman, wife of J. Borden Harriman, and modeled on similar clubs for men, it was the first social club established in New York City by and for women, although today male members are admitted.- History...
and a longtime friend, helped de Wolfe secure the commission for its interior design. The building, located at 120 Madison Avenue (near 30th Street), became the premier women's social club. It opened in 1907, and it's interiors gave her recognition almost over night. Instead of the heavy and masculine style of the day, Elsie used light fabric window coverings, painted the walls with pale colors, tiled the floors, and added wicker chairs. The effect was the illusion of an outdoor garden pavillion with a touch of femininity. (It is now occupied by the American Academy of Dramatic Arts
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts is a fully accredited two-year conservatory with facilities located in Manhattan, New York City – at 120 Madison Avenue, in a landmark building designed by noted architect Stanford White as the original Colony Club – and in Hollywood, California...
) The success of this endeavor was a turning point that launched her on a financially successful career.
Over the course of the next 6 years, Elsie designed the interiors of many prestigous homees and clubs on both the East Coast and West Coast.
She also did opera boxes, a dormitory, and a model home. By 1913, she had developed her business enough to take up an entire floor of offices on 5th ave., complete with assistants, secretaries and bookkeepers. In 1915, she was commissioned a job by Henrik Clay Frick, one of the richest men in America at the time. Previously he had lived at a chateu in Pennsylvania and while making millions monopolizing the coal industry. Upon his retirement he moved to New York, where he bought a block on 5th ave, along with the building the NY public library had occupied, for around $2.5 million. He demolished the building and hired Thomas Hastings to build a new home for he and his family. Sir Charles Allom, known for his work remodeling Buckingham Palace, was hired to decorate a number of rooms on the first floor of the home, while Elsie was hired to decorate the second floor, which included the sleeping quarters amoungst other rooms. Though it is not known exactly how it was that she secured the job with Frick, it is possible that it was because she was known as one the best, if not the best, decorators of the time. Earning commision for every piece of art or furniture she purchased for Frick, Elsie became a very rich woman. She continued to design interior spaces for a long list of prestigous clients and wrote several books and articles. During world war I she volunteered as a nurse in France, and it wasn't until nearly the end of her career that, at the age of 61, she married.
Marriage and family
De Wolfe's 1926 marriage to diplomat Sir Charles Mendl was page-one news in the New York Times. Shortly after her marriage, she scandalized French diplomatic society when she attended a fancy-dress ball dressed as a Moulin Rouge dancer and made her entrance turning handsprings. A guest chided her: "Elsie, it is wonderful to be able to turn handsprings at your age. But, after all, you are, you are Charlie's wife, and do you think it is in perfect taste for the wife of a diplomat to perform acrobatics in a ballroom?"The Times said that "the intended marriage comes as a great surprise to her friends," perhaps because since 1892 de Wolfe had been living openly in what many observers accepted as a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
relationship. As the Times put it: "When in New York she makes her home with Miss Elizabeth [sic] Marbury
Elisabeth Marbury
Elisabeth Marbury was a pioneering American theatrical and literary agent and producer who represented a prominent theatrical performers and writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and helped shape business methods of the modern commercial theater...
at 13 Sutton Place
Sutton Place, Manhattan
Sutton Place is the name given to one of the most affluent streets in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States, situated on the border between the Midtown and Upper East Side neighborhoods...
."
The daughter of a prosperous New York lawyer, Elisabeth (Bessy) Marbury, like de Wolfe, was also a career pioneer. She was one of the first theatrical agents, and her clients included Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
and George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
. During their nearly 40 years together, Marbury was initially the main support of the couple. Dave Von Drehle speaks of "the willowy De Wolfe and the masculine Marbury... cutting a wide path through Manhattan society. Gossips called them "the Bachelors."
Prominence
In 1926 the New York Times described de Wolfe as "one of the most widely known women in New York social life," and in 1935 as "prominent in Paris society." Her morning exercises were famous. In her 1935 autobiography, de Wolfe wrote that her daily regimen at age 70 included yogaYoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
, standing on her head, and walking on her hands.
In 1935, Paris experts named her the best-dressed woman in the world, noting that she wore what suited her best, regardless of fashion.
De Wolfe had embroidered taffeta pillows bearing the motto "Never complain, never explain." On first seeing the Parthenon
Parthenon
The Parthenon is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their virgin patron. Its construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. It was completed in 438 BC, although...
, De Wolfe exclaimed "It's beige—my color!" At her house in France, the Villa Trianon, she had a dog cemetery in which each tombstone read, "The one I loved the best."
Elsie de Wolfe was also able to transform interiors in the 19th century from Victorian style to a fresh new style. Most of Victorian style featured dark colors and not very much light. de Wolfe used new styles that featured light colors. She appreciated the simplicity in that was involved with light and fresh colors. She did not focus on what all she could fit into the room, but rather what was appropriate to fit into the room. The appreciation for this grew through her practices with yoga. The simplicity that she exerted in her daily life reflected her designs. She tried to unify the room using all the aspects of the room. Tying in the upholstery, to the paint, to the curtains, etc.
Elsie de Wolfe was able to create a name for herself apart from he husband that was often not common during her time. She was able to have publishing in Good House Keeping. This is where women were able to build a name for themselves, as well as begin to create a name for women in the design world. This shows when women start to surface in the design world. She also gets the honor designing the Colony Club. This was the first women's social club in New York.
American Decades opines that "she was probably the first woman to dye her hair blue, to perform handstands to impress her friends, and to cover eighteenth-century footstools in leopard-skin chintz
Chintz
Chintz is glazed calico cloth printed with flowers and other patterns in different colours. Unglazed calico is called "cretonne". The word Calico is derived from the name of the Indian city Calicut to which it had a manufacturing association.-History:Chintz was originally a woodblock printed,...
es."
In popular culture
- In Irving BerlinIrving BerlinIrving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
's Harlem On My Mind the singer professes to prefer the "low-down" Harlem ambience to her "high-falutin' flat that Lady Mendl designed." - One of the color schemes she popularized was the inspiration for the Cole PorterCole PorterCole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
song "That Black and White Baby of Mine" (whose lyrics include the lines "All she thinks black and white/She even drinks black and white"). - In Cole PorterCole PorterCole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
's lyric about modern scandals, "Anything Goes," he observes, "When you hear that Lady Mendl, standing up/Now turns a handspring landing up-/On her toes/Anything goes!"
See also
- The Decoration of HousesThe Decoration of HousesThe Decoration of Houses, a manual of interior design written by Edith Wharton with architect Ogden Codman, was first published in 1898. In the book, the authors denounced Victorian-style interior decoration and interior design, especially those rooms that were decorated with heavy window curtains,...
a manual of interior design by Edith WhartonEdith WhartonEdith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...
and Ogden Codman - Victorian decorative artsVictorian decorative artsVictorian decorative arts refers to the style of decorative arts during the Victorian era. The Victorian era is known for its eclectic revival and interpretation of historic styles and the introduction of cross-cultural influences from the middle east and Asia in furniture, fittings, and Interior...
Ludwig Bemelmans
Ludwig Bemelmans
Ludwig Bemelmans was an Austrian author, an internationally known gourmet, and a writer and illustrator of children's books. He is most noted today for his Madeline books, six of which were published from 1939-1961...
,The one I loved the best (1955)
External links
- Flanner, Janet (1938) "Handsprings Across the Sea," The New Yorker, 1938-01-15, as posted online http://www.newyorker.com/printables/archive/040927fr_archive01; profile of de Wolfe
- "A Decorator's Life: Elise De Wolfe 1865-1950", Canadian Interior Design (http://www.canadianinteriordesign.com/kwi/Page_2/Elsie_De_Wolfe.htm)
- "Elsie de Wolfe" Encyclopaedia Brittannica (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/154188/Elsie-de-Wolfe)
- House The house in good taste (University of Wisconsin Digital Collections)
- Sarah E. Mitchell, "Review of Elsie de Wolfe, The House in Good Taste", Vintage Designs
- Elsie de Wolfe House
- Penny Sparke, Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration, ISBN 0-926494-27-9
- A Decorator’s Life: Elsie De Wolfe 1865 - 1950, Canadian Interior Design