Interior Decorating in Nineteenth-century France

"Lasc provides a valuable study of the development and professionalisation of interior design that expands and complements the Anglo-American focus of much existing work. She does this through a comprehensive examination of primary and secondary sources, and by rethinking assumptions about gender, historicism and modernism in interior-design practice and mediation."
Grace Lees-Maffei, Professor of Design History, University of Hertfordshire

"Framed against the background of widespread economic and social change following the French Revolution, Anca Lasc's book is a convincing and well-documented contribution to the history of the interior-design profession in France. It mines a rich array of print resources to construct a detailed history of the domestic interior, and offers a novel interpretation of the origins of Art Nouveau that challenges the prevailing dichotomy between historicism and modernity."
David Raizman, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA

This book locates the beginnings of the interior-design profession in nineteenth-century France, when an intense interest in the decoration of the domestic interior took hold at all levels of society. Drawing on an abundance of contemporary materials, including collecting and advice manuals, pattern books, illustrated magazines and department-store catalogues, it demonstrates how the growing visual culture of the interior, encouraged by new techniques of image-making, enabled the as-yet-unnamed profession of interior designer to take shape. The book observes the dependence of the trades on the artistic and public visual appeal of their work, establishing crucial links between the fields of art history, material and visual culture, and design history.