16TH-18TH CENTURY PERIOD STYLES AND COLOR SCHEMES

BAROQUE
FRENCH BAROQUE (1600 – 1715)
 Louise XIV Style
 Rich and heavy décor, emphasis of logic and
order
 Demonstrate a love and grandeur
 Giant scale, heaviness of structure, rich
ornamentation

Charles Lebrun

Prime designer of the interior detail

Of the Galerie des Glaces (Hall of
Mirrors)
 Roofs are highly pitched with clustered
chimneys
 Windows (double Hung) increase in size as do
the window panes and doorways
 Large scale
 Symmetry
 Center emphasis
 Movement of plains

Motifs:
 Rounded niches with classical figures
 C and S scrolls

 Pilasters
 Columns shells
Galerie des Glaces  Urns
 Classical/baroque orders employed in a
Gold Creme non-classical manner

ENGLISH BAROQUE (1660-1700)

English Baroque is best identified with the

restoration of the monarchy following the English
Civil War and Commonwealth at the end of the
Renaissance Period. It is a style known for its
awkwardness and overly ornate handling of
French Baroque characteristics.

St. Paul’s Wren, London

Designed by Christopher Wren

 Strong and brilliant in the Estate house

Le Madeleine in Paris
 Palace with blues and greens in the more
important rooms
 More subdued schemes featuring browns,
grays and blue grays in the less ornate
middle-class home
 GEORGIAN
THE ROMANTIC PERIOD (1785 – 1832)
EARLY GEORGIAN (1700 – 1720)
Romantic period was an artistic, literary, musical
Early Georgian color schemes includes burgundy,
and intellectual movement that originated in
sage green and blue grey. As the style developed,
Europe.
they became lighter ln terms of colors and
decoration.

 Bold colors and sharp contrasts

 White for purity, cleanliness andneutrality
 Black for authority, evil and death
 Red for love, comfort and intensity
 Yellow for happiness and wealth
 Green for nature and tranquility
 Blue for calmness
 Purple for royalty
 Brown for security and nature

The Romantic period coincided with the industrial

revolution and the more 'functional' aesthetics of
Architectue:
the mills and bridges were seen as structures that
 Yellow bricks replaced red (it gave a more
could not sufficiently nourish the 'emotional',
stone-like appearance)
'nationalist' and'exotic' aspects of European
 Colors of outside ironwork blue or steel blue,
cultures. Each of the major European powers
doors green or blue, windows dark brown in
were scrambling to stake their claim on
plain paint or grained
architectural styles that reflected their glorious past,
 Wallpaper using wood blocks, stenciling or
nature's sublime beauty and European cultural
flocking
openness to the world.

NEOCLASSIC PERIOD
EARLY FRENCH NEOCLASSIC: LOUIS XVI (1774-1792)
It was on late 18th century that French politics
stood in dire need of revolution. Problems came up
such as French court had drained and gone into
debt. During the Louis XVI, nobility was replaced by
an upper bourgeoisie which was making fortunes
in industry and trade.

Sky Blue Pea Green There was a major conflict in choosing the proper
colors for this period. There were some who like the
great painter, David, insisted on the pure formal
Soft Grey
colors of the Greek and Roman Tradition.
Eventually, French taste was under feminine
domination. Mmes. Pompadour and Du Barry had
influenced on Louis XV while Marie Antoinette
influenced the reign of Louis XVI.

Formal and Authentic Colors to complement the

Marie Antoinette’s Music Hall
Classical Revival. Marie Antoinette, a woman of
luxury is said to have preferred the gentle touch Gray Blue French Gold

therefore held to the pastels and muted tones such

as:
Chalk Green Pale Citon Flesh Pink Empire Green

Flesh Pink Deep Ruby

French Rose Salmon
Empire Red Fray Mauve EARLY ENGLISH NEOCLASSIC: LATE GEORGIAN

Empire Green Pale Ivory (1770 – 1810)

Azure Blue This period has a style that was born both classical

Amethyst forms of antiquity. Robert Adam reinterpreted the

Gray Blue classic concept and architectural elements from

Chalk Beige different cultures, including Roman and Greek.

French Gold Architecture in this period emphasizes the wall

Empire Yellow rather than chiaroscuro and maintains separate

identities to each of its parts. The style is manifested
both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo
style of realistic ornament.

The colors are generally mild like cream, gray, pale

blue, yellow and green. Luster black, red, gold and
silver were used mainly as accenting colors.

Marie Antoinette’s Bedroom in Chateau de

Versailles
Gray Blue French Gold
 The Château de Compiègne

Harewood House, West Yorkshire, England

It was designed by architects John Carr and Robert

Adam. Built between 1759 and 1771 for wealthy
plantation owner, Edwin Lascelles.

LATE FRENCH NEOCLASSIC PERIOD Hotel Bourrienne

FRENCH DIRECTOIRE
Directoire was named the “directory”, the FRENCH EMPIRE: NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE

government that ruled France after the Reign of During this period style were associated with the

Terror. The directoire style begun to take form reign of Napoleon Bonaparte. The styles were

before the revolution, and some of the elements inspired from his admiration of Egypt, Greece, &

continued to exist after the rise of Napoleon. Rome; French empire dignifies masculinity in design:
heavy and imposing & austere and formal. Unlike

French directoire represents a transition from Louis French directoire, empire style eliminated curved

XVI to the French Empire of Napoleon. There were lines except for chairs and sofas; severe angularity

still classical influence and structural forms were sharpened by the use of highly polished flat

adopted. Egyptian Motifs such as human figures, surfaces.

lotus flowers, sphinxes, papyrus, date palms, lion’s

heads were freely borrowed.

Napoleon Bonaparte Josephine de Beauharnais

There was a high tendency to more accurately

revive classical models during the empire. The

During the French directoire stronger color empire style can be described as: stiff, pretentious,

schemes were used; use of flag colors rigid, grandiose, emphasizing strong value contrast.

(blue,red,white) and also yellow, black, and gold.

During this period rich and vibrant colors were AMERICAN
used: AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIOR
 Wine red, purple, bright blue, emerald green, The development of American architecture,
and gold interiors, and furniture was heavily influenced by
English styles. As the colonies began to develop,
colonists started to manufacture their own
necessities, and their dependence on England
began to diminish.
AMERICAN COLONIAL (AMERICAN GEORGIAN)
Interior Details
Floors: Wooden plank
Walls: Large raised wooden panels, unpainted;
also, plain plaster with chair rail
Windows: Sash
Doors: Paneled
Chimneypiece: Flush, framed with simple,
projecting bolection molding
Ceiling: Flat, plain
Empress Josephine’s Bedrrom Stairs: Wooden U-stair with turned balusters
Red Gold
Early Georgian colors were the Renaissance colors
imported from England and France, with a
Creme Royal Blue preference for greens and dark dull blues; deep
olive greens (examples of Colonial Williamsburg
colors); and some golds, oranges, and browns
reminiscent of English Medieval interiors.

The Verplanck Room (from a house built around

1767 in Coldenham, New York reflects the impact
Napoleon’s Room in Fontainebleau of this changing taste. A simple cornice and
Emerald Green Creme chair-rail-high wainscot run along three of the
room’s walls and elegant crossetted moldings
enhance the fireplace surround and overmantle.
Wine Red Fluted pilasters on the fireplace wall establish the
proportion of the room and carry a simple
entablature that incorporates the window Chimneypiece: Flush, with molding forming ears,
surrounds as it encircles the room. and often with cornice and frieze; cornice forms
mantel, over mantel with ears
Ceiling: Flat, plain, or decorated with anaglypta
(raised patterns)
Stairs: Wooden U-turn, turned balusters

The chimney-breast in the Powel Room (from a

house built in 1765–66 in Philadelphia) was adorned
with carved foliate ornament that was painted a
bright green verdigris to increase its visual impact
against the room’s creamy woodwork.
American Colonial colors were peach, ivory,
Wedgewood blue, opal pink, and green with
clean and creamy white backgrounds of English
garden-printed fabrics. More intense colors such as
reds, golds, and deep greens and blues were still
often seen in rich imported textiles such as silks, fine
cottons, linens, and in the increasingly popular
Oriental rugs.

The Alexandria Ballroom is a Georgian-style interior

originally nestled within the 1792–93 Federal-style
Gadsby’s City Hotel and Tavern in Alexandria,
VirginiaIn this way, Georgian fundamentals,
especially a focus on theories of order, symmetry,
and proportion, reached into the nineteenth
century and beyond.
The 1677 Whipple house is a National Historic
AMERICAN COLONIAL (EARLY AMERICAN) Landmark owned by the Ipswich museum, and is
Interior Details one of the finest examples of “first period”
Floors: Wooden plank American architecture (1625-1725). Captain John
Walls: Large raised wooden panels, painted; also, Whipple constructed a townhouse near the center
dado with wallpaper above of Ipswich.
Windows: Sash
Doors: Paneled, moldings with ears (molding
breaks to form squares at corners)
 clear medium blue); Pompadour blue and DuBarry
red (soft colors named after Louis XV’s mistresses);
and accentuated gold and silver tones like Federal
yellow.

English and Americans added Robert Adam colors

to the spectrum: a clear spring green called Adam
green, dove gray, pale lavender, faded red, deep
olive green, grayed green and blue, warm pink,
The Stanley-Whitman House is a historic house and the Wedgewood jasperware colors, which
museum at 37 High Street in Farmington, were tones of blue, warm coral pink, creamy sage,
Connecticut. Built c. 1720, it is one of the oldest or stark white— sometimes accentuated with gold
houses in Farmington. leaf.

The “1640 Hart House” on Linebrook Rd. An Irish The Crowninshield–Bentley House (circa 1727–1730)
tanner named Thomas Hart arrived in the is a Colonial house in the Georgian style, located
Massachusetts Bay Colony on the ship Desire from at 126 Essex Street, Salem, Massachusetts in
Baddow, Essex County, England. the Essex Institute Historic District.

AMERICAN FEDERAL
Interior Details
-Floors: Wooden plank
Walls: Plain plaster
Windows: Sash
Doors: Paneled, with fanlights used as transoms,
sidelights
Chimneypiece: Projecting, classical, in the Adam
style, with a raised panel in the center of the frieze
Ceiling: Plain, plaster with cornice molding Rural hamlet of West Dunstable, Massachusetts,
Stairs: Various configurations; wooden with turned where she built a simple Cape home Prosperity in
balusters the 1780s saw the addition of a formal parlor, with
a hand-carved mantel in the classical Federal
Colors during the Federal period were light and style.
pastel. Americans were influenced by the French
Neoclassical colors such as cream; powder green
and pink; French lilac and turquoise; Sevres blue (a
 accents of royal blue, bright red and magenta in
traditionally designed textile patterns.

From the turn of the century through the 1930s,

many pure revivals were seen, and colors were
often documented to the era of the revival.

Isaac Royall, Jr. (1719–1781) came into its

possession of the property in 1739 following the
death of his father. He greatly enlarged it between
1747 and 1750. He more than doubled the depth
of the main building, greatly extended the brick
end walls correspondingly, and at either end of the The Haverhill Room Is from a house built for James
house constructed great twin chimneys Duncan Jr. (1756–1822) in 1805. Haverhill,
connected by parapets. Other features he added Massachusetts, is located thirty miles northwest of
include the false ashlar siding on the new western Boston and emerged in the late eighteenth
facade and great Doric pilasters inserted at the century as an industrial center for the milling of
corners. lumber and wheat as well as for distilling,
shipbuilding, textile manufacturing, and leather
POST FEDERAL (VICTORIAN AGE IN AMERICA) processing.
Interior Details
Floors: Wood plank
Walls: Plain plaster with wallpaper
Windows: Sash—large panes of glass
Doors: Paneled; some sliding pocket doors
Chimneypiece: Projecting carved marble, with a
roundheaded arched opening
Ceiling: Mass-produced crown moldings,
anaglypta
patterns, and chandelier medallions of plaster
Stairs: Various configurations, straight run favored;
wooden with turned balusters and elaborate
newel posts The Baltimore Room comes from a townhouse built
between 1810 and 1811 for the Baltimore,
The Victorian period was an age of richly Maryland, merchant and shipowner Henry Craig
furnished eclecticism. This era is often referred to as (1767–1823). Following the American Revolution,
the mauve decades, supporting colors such as Baltimore emerged as a major Atlantic port.
deep, old-looking red and faded rose red or
mauve, wine and dark violet, taupe, and black.
Also seen were sage, dark olive, clear green, dark
and creamy gold, tobacco brown, rust, and
Richmond lawyer William Clayton Williams
(1768–1817), the room’s most notable features are
its rich mahogany woodwork and blue-and-gray
King of Prussia marble baseboards.Richmond that
drew a large number of talented carpenters,
ornamental-plaster workers, and decorative
painters who created lavish interiors with
decorative woodwork and ornate plaster ceilings.