CIRCA 1870, PROBABLY BELGIUM

The opening of Japan from 1854 captivated the imagination of the Western world and would inspire the and inform European and North American decorative arts for the remainder of the 19th century. The influence of the Japanese art and design perhaps reaching its apogee during the 1870s and 80s with the Japonisme in Northern Europe and the Aesthetic movement in Great Britain and the U.S.A.

This panelling is an impressive manifestation of this influence, showing the immersive appeal of this exotic form of decoration at its height. Very much in keeping with the Parisian interpretation of the Japanese influence, this remarkable survival is said to have come from a Belgian house before being carefully restored and installed to great effect in its last home on the shores of lake Geneva.

Parallels can certainly be drawn with the acclaimed Peacock Room created by James Whistler and Thomas Jeckyll between 1876 and 1877 for the Kensington, London, mansion of the shipping magnate Fredrick Richards Leyland, which is now in the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. That room was conceived for the display of porcelain and likely inspired the addition of the asymmetric shelves edged with split bamboo to this panelling for the display of porcelain in dramatic contrast to its rich backdrop.