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See more objects with the tag interior, domestic, home, landscape, hunting, frame, equestrian.

Object Timeline

1947	We acquired this object.
1970	We photographed this object.
2001	We exhibited this object.
2015	We photographed this object.
2025	You found it!

Sidewall (France)

This is a sidewall. It is dated 1860–1870 and we acquired it in 1947. Its medium is machine-printed paper. It is a part of the Wallcoverings department.

The framework of this wallpaper captures a format of “postcard” views popularized during the second half of the 19th century. This format was available in a wide variety of block or tile styles, from rustic to more sophisticated, with each paper usually containing 3-6 different scenes, with adjoining tiles always having different views. As most if not all of these block-format papers were machine-printed the pattern repeats were quite small, usually 18 inches, so the maximum number of different scenes was limited.

This paper contains scenes of cowboys shown in a variety of frontier past-times. The machine-printing causes color bleed throughout which is more apparent in the landscape scenes, which softens the images creating a nice contrast to the strict confines of the coffer-like framework which is printed in a strong 3-dimensional appearance. The landscape views appear more to be pictures or illustrations as viewed in a picture frame, as opposed to viewing a landscape through an open window.

It is credited Gift of Eleanor Mitchell.