Ontwerp voor de decoratie van drie wanden van een kamer c. 1752 - 1819

This is Jurriaan Andriessen’s, *Ontwerp voor de decoratie van drie wanden van een kamer*, made in the 18th century. Andriessen was from a family of painters, who specialized in wallpaper art. During the 1700s the Dutch Republic was an oligarchy, with wealth and power concentrated in the hands of a few families. Andriessen's design captures the aesthetic sensibilities of this elite class; look at the symmetry of the panels, the muted colors, and the classical imagery. These were all status symbols intended to convey a sense of elegance, order, and authority. Wallpaper like this would have been commissioned for private homes. It is interesting to imagine who would have been able to enjoy such a space, and who would have been responsible for maintaining it. These interiors speak to the social hierarchies of the time, and the vast discrepancies in lived experience. What stories would these walls tell, if they could speak?