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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Historic Wallpapers, 1750-1949, Catherine Wilkinson-Zerner
Historic Wallpapers, 1750-1949, Catherine Wilkinson-Zerner
Journals
Exhibition Notes, Number 21, Spring 2003. In the 18th century, European and American interiors were transformed by the rise of a new kind of wall treatment. Wallpaper – mass-produced, affordable, and highly practical – reached a broader audience than fine prints and paintings. This wide distribution prompted wallpaper artists to heed the contemporary interests of the expanding consumer class. As a result, wallpaper often recorded social changes as they were expressed in the shifting relationship between high art and popular culture throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.