Coastal Landscape

Painted wall panels became popular in New England in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and itinerant decorative house painters could, for a modest sum, provide pattern and color to the simplest of interiors. These skilled artisans could simulate expensive paneling, wall hangings or the look of stonework; scenic views or repeated patterns imitated as well the costly wallpaper that appeared first in America in the early nineteenth century. Scholarship has identified the prevalence of an apprenticeship system responsible for training most of the young men who became house painters; there is clear evidence that decorating techniques and paint formulas were passed from master to apprentice. (Nina Fletcher Little, American Decorative Wall-Painting 1700-1850 (New York, 1972), p. xix.)