Wallpaper 1787 - 1790

This scenic wallpaper was made by Arthur and Robert Wallpapers and shows the meeting of art and industry. Here, the paper acts as both surface and support for the pastoral landscape. What appears at first glance to be a hand-painted mural is, in fact, a mass-produced item. Wallpaper like this was created using woodblocks to transfer the design onto the paper's surface in a repeating pattern, layer by layer. Imagine the amount of labour this entailed, from the production of paper to the carving of woodblocks, to the skilled printing process itself. This beautiful scene served the purpose of bringing nature indoors. The wallpaper reflects the increasing consumption of decorative arts, tied to rising affluence in the 18th and 19th centuries. Recognizing the labor and industrial processes behind it encourages us to reconsider traditional distinctions between fine art and craft, reminding us of the social context embedded in every object.