Wallpaper with formalised floral motif
Designed by Owen Jones (1809-74)
England
Mid-19th century
Colour print from woodblocks
Museum no. 8341.57
Given by Miss Cathrine Jones, daughter of the artist

Jones was a prolific designer of wallpapers. His designes drew heavily on his anthology of histiric decorative motifs, published as 'The Grammar of Ornament' (1856). However, unlike Pugin, Jones did not believe that one could simply reproduce past styles in a modern context. He believed that architecture and design should be of its time, but that it should look to the ornamental art of the past for inspiration.

Though the forms he used were often naturalistic, he reduced them to flat forms in patterns based on 'geometrical construction' [Jones, 'Grammar', 1868, p.5]. He wrote that 'papaer hangings should not call attention to themselves, but remain as a background for the paintings, engravings, and other art works' [Jones, 'Colour in the Decorative Arts', in 'On the Manufacture of Glass', ed. George Shaw, 1852, p.286] yet his wallpapers are characterised by strong colours in uncommon combinations, deviced in accordance with his own colour theories.