Wurzblatt (Wallpaper Design) c. 1915

This is Dagobert Peche’s Wurzblatt wallpaper design, made sometime in the early 20th century. Look at how the black foliage sits on that golden ground. I find myself wondering what it would be like to live amongst this pattern, to see those shapes repeated, creating a world. The colour and pattern look so bold and graphic. It has to be a print, right? Although the black looks almost velvety, like a really matte ink. And, up close, you can see the way the lines of the stems have this slight wobble, giving them an almost hand-drawn quality. I love the way the leaves have this teardrop shape, like heavy rain about to fall. I'm reminded of the prints of someone like William Morris, but where he was aiming for something natural, organic, Peche is pushing towards something much more stylized, even a little strange. Ultimately, this piece, like so much art, embraces ambiguity. What at first seems decorative, even conventional, opens to a space of the imagination.