It’s always a treat for WHS members to gather in the beautiful and august surroundings of the Art Workers’ Guild in Bloomsbury, and November 16th was no exception. An audience of over 40 people came to review the finances, approve changes to the committee and celebrate the past year.
The Art Workers’ Guild, Bloomsbury, London
Our Chair Rowena Beighton-Dykes thanked all members of the committee for their hard work during the year and was duly cheered for her own incalculable contribution to the society, both in steering it with a firm and friendly hand and editing the bumper-sized WHS Review which was published in the summer. Rowena’s four-year term of office as Chair will come to an end at the end of 2025 and members were urged to consider how the post will be filled subsequently.
Thanks were given to Phillippa Mapes who steps down after many years as Vice-Chair, but happily will remain on the committee, and to Zoe Hendon who is leaving the committee after doing so much to create and market our events programme alongside Wendy Andrews, including digitising our ticketing system. We are hugely grateful to her.
We elected a new Vice-Chair in Wendy Andrews and a new committee member in Caroline Bennett-Jane who comes with a wealth of experience from the commercial world, having worked for Sanderson for many years, and a rich knowledge of William Morris’ work. We look forward to having her join the team.
Our Treasurer Pauline Birdsall gave a clear and comprehensive overview of the society’s finances which are in good health, aided by the appointment of a new and experienced accountant who has not only audited our accounts but offered invaluable advice about our status as a charity. Pauline also looks after membership and urged everyone attending to ensure that their contact details are up to date so that copies of the Review land on the right doormats.
After a break for lunch and socialising – never long enough – we settled down to hear Jo Banham give this year’s lecture, entitled ‘Oscar Wilde, Wallpapers and the House Beautiful’.
Lecturer Jo Banham and Rowena Beighton-Dykes, WHS Chair
Taking Wilde’s supposed deathbed quote of ‘Either this wallpaper goes or I do’ as her starting point, Jo led us on a fascinating journey backed by exhaustive research through Wilde’s tastes and influential writings on interior decoration. In spite of the paucity of available records regarding Wilde’s own interiors, Jo was able to chart Wilde’s development from his time as a Morris wallpaper-loving student at Oxford, where he fell under the influence of Walter Pater’s gospel of Art for Art’s Sake, to his role as a key figure in the promotion of artistic decoration in the home and later descent into poverty and exile.
Jo described Wilde’s 18-month lecture tour of the United States, after which he claimed that he had ‘civilised America’ with his recommendations for artistic wallpapers featuring sunflowers and lilies adorning rooms full of blue and white china and spindly furniture. She explained how he railed against ‘sham’ papers that imitated other materials such as marble or wood and advocated the blues, greys and yellows of Whistler’s paintings and design schemes in the search for design harmony, as well as admiring gilded leather papers.
Jo’s richly illustrated talk and knowledgeable exploration of Wilde’s tastes and writings brought us back ultimately to the sad circumstances of his last days in the shabby Hotel d’Alsace in Paris. The photographic image of Wilde lying on his deathbed against a backdrop of cheap flowered wallpaper was not only riveting in its ghoulishness but also perplexing for wallpaper historians. Will we ever know what paper it is? Jo’s research suggested it was most likely a sanitary paper in a design of flowers, foliage and scrollwork but whatever the case, it was a far cry from all that Wilde had loved and promoted in interior decoration.
Our thanks to Jo for a brilliant and absorbing lecture.
Lucy Ellis