Ornament by Design

23 April 2016 – 12 June 2016, Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, London

Devised by Prof Katie Scott, curated by MA History of Art students

Charles de Wailly, Unknown Salon Interior, 1750, France, pen, black ink and grey wash over traces of black chalk, 490 x 460 mm. DMC 1270.

‘Ornament by Design’ examined the interplay between architectural drawings and ornament, tracing the various ways in which ornament can transform the surface of buildings and things into objects of desire. The display presented 29 drawings from 17th and 18th-century France. The drawings included architectural elevations and sections, designs of ceilings and garden ornaments, capriccios, and studies for specific motifs, such as ornamental brackets and frames. The exhibition aimed at a broadened understanding between space and place from an anthropological perspective and raised questions about the ways in which physical structures served to represent, reproduce, and re-invent social systems in the Ancien Régime.

Within this framework is the possibility for students to explore the drawings as a ‘real’ rather than virtual exhibition stimulating further their sensibility on the impact of space on objects – and vice versa. The aim was to expose postgraduate students to curatorial work and connect original academic research on the objects.

Jaques François Blondel, Cartouche designs, 18th century, France, red chalk on laid paper, 210 x 227 mm. DMC 2226.

Gilles-Marie Oppenord, Classical capriccio, c. 1720, France, sanguine, black ink and pen on ten sheets of joined paper with an addition on the bottom, 830 x 560 mm. DMC 1349.

Jean Démosthène Dugourc, Salle Egyptiene pour l’Escurial, 1786, Spain, pen and black ink with watercolour on chalque paper, 380 x 605 mm. DMC 1034.2.
François Joseph Bélanger, interior wall decorations, 1790, France, watercolour, gouache, pen and black ink, pencil on paper, mounted, 306 x 285 mm. DMC 1333.