Design for a Painted Ceiling 1800 - 1900

This design for a painted ceiling was made by an anonymous artist, using watercolor and pen and ink on paper. The material itself is not precious, and yet the effect is intended to be luxurious, even extravagant. Before industrialization, elaborate decoration like this would have been reserved for the wealthy. It speaks to the close relationship between art and economic status. The careful drawing and painting displays a high degree of skill, honed through years of practice; you can imagine that the person who made this design was part of a workshop system, in which expertise was developed over time. The process would begin with drawings like this one, before being translated onto the architecture. The grid patterns that run throughout would have provided a valuable guide during this transfer. The finished ceiling would certainly have been seen as ‘high art.’ But this design reminds us of the labor involved in its production, and the social context that made such displays of wealth possible.